Panic ensues when the people of Ewin start dying. A bacteria, the scientists say, is spreading exponentially, and the survivors desperately seek refuge on the only place possible, a visiting freighter currently in orbit.
Talian and Eustace find their way to the ship through the tender hauling materials into it's hold. But The Nirvana is no cruise liner, or state of the art ship-it's a hundred-year-old freighter with no room for passengers. The crew can't do anything other than let them come, find a space for them within it's cold, utilitarian interior, and hope to find a safe place they can deliver them to.
With limited resources and no proper living quarters, the evacuees find themselves thrust into an unimaginable struggle for survival. There aren't enough resources, and there's little they can do for the dying. But for anyone to survive, they must utilize whatever skills they have on board, even if entirely inadequate. Such as Talian, a lowly data analyst with the Ministry of Agriculture, being made responsible for feeding everyone.
If the problems aren't solved, no one survives. So tensions run high among both crew and survivors as no one was prepared for something like this, but they must band together to navigate the treacherous journey ahead. As they battle not only the deadly virus but also the claustrophobic confines of the freighter, their physical and mental limits are tested to the extreme.