Another tragedy: exposing the precariousness of the human race. A ship load of chemical weapons explodes off the eastern Mediterranean coast. The oxygen-eating gas then nuclear contamination spread like a grass fire; consuming their victims and passing by. Nation after nation succumbs while politicians fiddle and millions flee to New Zealand and South America, most to perish only a week or two later. Only Invercargill in New Zealand and Antarctica are reprieved.
In the beginning Janet Myer appears to a be a subservient housewife, however after outliving her much superior financier husband, spending two years with a lone cow on Pitt Island, one of the Chatham group, she becomes one of a few destined to lead survivors back to towns now free of contamination: that is after they have been de-bodied.
