Cold, pale, and in the dark, Fret (Anna Hopkins) crashes back to waking life inside a life-suspension chamber. From her tiny cell, she commiserates with other captives; they piece together what happened. A global plague called Coral ravaged Earth, and an invasive slime mold swept the planet with incredible speed, infecting all living things. Fret was a parasitologist, obsessed with trying to control the organism. Her work could have saved millions, but she was imprisoned by an unknown abductor. Her cellmates are dragged off by a faceless attendant, and she must find a way to escape and save the last of her kind.