The year is 2050, and the past is but a memory for those few left in the United States. Surrounded by desolate and abandoned cities, once proud and bustling, Americans no longer know the identity of their president for reasons of national security. It is here, in the apocalyptic landscape of Paul William Roberts' imagination, that we meet David Leverett, a former foreign policy-maker. Leverett looks back on his long life and confronts his role in the downfall of American society, exposing the catastrophic actions that dissolved the nation into a state of paranoia and terror.