"Oh, Mrs. Sirman, there's a problem with your husband's cremation." "What sort of problem?" "It's his body." "What about it?" "It won't burn." And so it begins for Pam Sirman...the first step toward learning that everything she thought she knew about her husband is wrong, perhaps even his humanity. But if he's not human, what is he?

Pam is one of three lives that will be drawn together by the apocalypse of the Upwelling.

The other two are Chan and Danni, but their worlds are already in chaos. A few weeks ago a fierce storm accompanied by an upwelling from the Atlantic abyssal plain tore into Atlantic City. When it receded, the city and its 25,000 inhabitants were gone without a trace. Chan and Danni remember being in the city that day, but the ten hours during which the Upwelling occurred have been wiped from their memories.

They want those memories back. Or do they? Did they witness something so unspeakably ghastly that their minds can't face it? Or worse: Was that ghastly thing something they did? And worst yet: Were they responsible for the Upwelling?