Magnus McFall was a comic on the brink of his big break when the world came to an end. Now, like other survivors of "the Sweats," the mysterious plague that has decimated the planet, he is a man on the run.

Thrown into unwilling partnership with an escaped convict named Jeb, Magnus flees the eerie desolation of de-populated London to make the long journey north, clinging to hope that the sickness has not reached his family in Scotland. Traveling through a familiar landscape now fraught with danger, Magnus finds himself a stranger in a world ruled by men like Jeb--hard-hearted, practical men quick to make life-or-death decisions.

In a world re-written with a harsh code of justice, and a new set of rules where people barter for their existence with food and weapons, survival is the bottom line. But when Magnus and Jeb stumble across a murder during their journey, they will have to decide whether finding the truth about a single death can weigh in the balance against the need to survive.