On a day like any other, a series of powerful coronal mass ejections hit Earth, frying much of the planet’s tech infrastructure. The world doesn’t collapse overnight, and Abigail Tate, a Chicago-tough university student, tags along with her newfound wealthy half-sister to Miami for spring break.

But once there, she discovers South Florida has become a dystopian cityscape of prey and predator. A drug called Wisht runs rampant, distorting minds and morphing bodies. Violent cults called Malforms relentlessly battle each other and hunt Goodfolk in competition with genetically engineered cat-size Komo Spiders, a dangerous EPA failure. And solar storms keep striking Earth, slowly pushing Florida into a new version of the Middle Ages.

Abagail’s only hope of survival is a group of Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputies who save her during a shootout between two cults. The problem is her half-sister got left behind in the rescue – and finding her is not the deputies’ top priority. Searching for a mysterious Father Benoit is, and they won’t divulge why. In the meantime, she becomes entangled in government conspiracies, religious zealots and a surprising new passion: aiding the deputies in protecting those who can’t defend themselves.