The Sparrow family is falling apart, and now their city is too. When
Portland is hit by the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, siblings
Morgan, Olivia, and Sherman are tasked with keeping their family alive
following one of the worst natural disasters in living memory.
Being a Sparrow child has never been simple. Olivia, Sherman, and Morgan
all have their faults, and they all cope with their tumultuous childhood
in their own unstable ways: Olivia leads an excessive lifestyle, Morgan
cycles through risky behaviors, and Sherman dabbles in morally
precarious business practices. Up until now, they have kept their family
from completely crumbling; but the cracks in their relationships are
about to be unearthed. As their shaky foundations collide, an earthquake
levels their city.
Olivia treks across a mutilated Portland to reach her family; Sherman
finds it in himself to protect his siblings from militia looters and
thugs; and Morgan uncovers the past wrongs of her parents. To make
matters worse, their shelter is in the path of a mass of loose earth
repeatedly shaken by aftershocks.
When the siblings finally reunite, their new task is to survive long
enough to be medevaced from their childhood home in the face of an
impending landslide. Previously separated by secrets and resentments,
they realize they are now united by survival. If resources don't run
out, if sickness doesn't overtake them, if alt-right militia members
don't intervene, and if the wet mass of land speeding toward their
makeshift shelter doesn't bury them, they will have to navigate their
past traumas and their parents' mistakes. Only then can they honor those
they have lost--and survive as a family.
