In the near future, an infectious and deadly disease appears in the city of Medburg. Whatever is causing it seems to be a mysterious new kind of organism. Emergency teams isolate the epidemic to Medburg, trapping 20,000 people in a containment zone that slowly descends into mayhem. Roderick Halkin and Cecily Sunday are unconventional scientists who must try to understand an unconventional microorganism that doesn't obey the laws of biology. Gary and Alicia Winters--Medburg teenagers with big dreams but not much else--struggle to stay alive. And the government faces a stark reality: If everything in the containment zone dies, so does the microbe, while a single breach in the zone--and perhaps even a single survivor left inside--endangers the whole world.