When Jason Walker and his dog MMax are both badly injured in an IED explosion while serving in the European war in 2038, they are evacuated back to the United States for the chance to recuperate and heal.
But before the two can reach the relative safety of their designated VA hospital in Tennessee an EMP blast creates havoc and brings down their plane, leaving them alone and vulnerable amidst the chaos of a country that is on the verge of complete and utter social collapse.
Now the two must somehow find their way home, to a town where Jason's mother Jan continues to hold out hope of his survival and where the attractive but romantically distant Billie Johnson clings on in a fragile and dangerous existence with her twelve-year-old son.
Jason and MMax certainly have the skills needed to survive in the hostile surroundings they now find themselves in, but in a world gone mad, where life clings on by a thread and people will kill for a few scraps of food, can they make it home alive? And if they can, will there be anything left to return to?