Adam Brown, a British army Major in command of security for the British embassy in Beijing, learns of an impending Chinese nuclear strike against America. As all communications are compromised, Adam makes a coded call home for extraction - but as the flight he is sharing with a party of schoolgirls and their teachers crosses the Pacific, the clock runs out and IT happens. As a result the plane makes a forced landing onto a deserted island and they all have to work hard, not just to survive and to establish a new home, but to face up to the reality that it is in their hands to either die out or to make a future for themselves and humanity.