Two years after a nuclear war decimates America, survivors attempt to piece together life-saving everyday technologies before a military draft reveals a dark side to the nation's reconstructed government.

Danny Wright is considered to be a hero by many in the rebel held area of Idaho and the Northwest, but he has little faith in what passes for a government there, or in the secretive and repressive Brotherhood--and when nuclear weapons are detonated in Washington, D.C. and New York, the Civil War suddenly turns into World War III.