Plot Summary

Flynn Webster lives in what’s left of the world: a dying swampland filled with harrowed survivors and the last drops of drinkable water. She survives by jumping through Rips in time and plundering the past, stealing medicine, food, and books from eras before the apocalypse. She barters and trades with other survivors to keep herself and her Aunt Ima alive.

It’s not a noble job, but she's as at-peace as a swamp-dweller is willing to get, until the day a man falls through a Rip behind her cabin. His name is Atlas Khan, and he’s a scientist from before it all went to shit, with big ideas and no clue how bad things have gotten. He thinks he can fix things. She thinks he’s an idiot.

When he offers to help save Aunt Ima’s life in exchange for help on his naive quest, Flynn agrees. Together, they travel into the Rips and through the wreckage of time itself. Their journey across the different eras of the apocalypse pulls them all the way back to the buzzing technological utopia of the world before the Breakdown—Atlas's home.

Atlas is searching for a way to save humanity from the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Flynn doesn’t believe in saving anyone. She just wants to see how it all ends.

Someone’s got to watch the lights go out. Right?