17-year-old Prestyn Carter despises change almost as much as she despises her father who murdered her mother many years ago, but change is inevitable when the world is ending. According to the morning news, there are only 24 hours until the Earth plummets into the sun.
While searching for closure for a life unfinished, Prestyn stumbles across her distant friend, Rutter, who inspires her to join the Race—a nationwide immigration effort to shift the Earth's gravity back to the correct orbital path, thus hopefully saving the world. After squealing the truck tires out of Corey Hill, the unlikely pair quickly learns that the apocalyptic haze of the real world isn't only about freedom and adventure.
The world around them crumbles. Fire and explosions leave entire cities in graveyard ruins. Looters kill in the absence of law. Heat poisoning and radiation blister and scar the skin of those who stand still for too long. Whole lakes evaporate. Tires melt. Lightning and wind threaten to rip the world apart, even before the twenty-four hours is up.
In the middle of it all, two mysterious men kidnap Prestyn and Rutter from the Race, bringing them to a secret location. Here, Prestyn learns her tragic past is not what she thought it was—and it may just be the key to giving her a future.