The world as we know it has ended as the result of a lethally engineered pandemic and a resulting limited nuclear war. A small remnant of humanity clings to life in what remains of Sweden, ruled by a sentient AI named H kan Magnusson which was put in place by Russians when they invaded the country. The survivors of this holocaust are interned in a series of forced labor camps spread along the railway from Uppsala in the south to the ore mines of Kiruna on the far northern tundra. A Swedish/American man named Stefan Andersson has managed to evade the Russian authorities and survive alone for the nearly four-year-long nuclear winter. But a chance encounter with a young woman fleeing the camps draws him into conflict with H kan Magnusson and her "Russian associates" and forces him to journey from the frozen tundra of the north to the heart of occupied Sweden and into a final battle with his enemies in the historic heart of Uppsala, Sweden.