Navy Senior Chief Jack Sager has a problem. It isn't that a nuclear war appears imminent; he figured that one out. It wasn't his doomsday plan to evacuate his and brother David's family from the navy base at Kings Bay, Georgia to their home state of Vermont before the bombs could fall, either. He managed it. Well, part way, anyway. Stranded in South Carolina, he must lead a grieving wife, a headstrong, pregnant sister-in-law, his surviving child, and a frightened, ineffectual family friend through the perils of nuclear war's aftermath.

Petty Officer David Sager is at sea on the ballistic missile submarine USS Anchorage when his brother's prediction comes to pass. As the missiles launch and the horror of nuclear war begins, David can only hope to survive, keep to his brother's plan, and with shipmate Danny Shuford, find his own way to Vermont though he has no way of knowing to whom or what he will be coming home to.