It's a picture-perfect day in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Lynette Frichette goes to work at The Gazette. Her daughter Dawn catches the bus to Billy Mitchell High School, and her husband Jim drives nails into the walls of the home he is building on Silent Rain Drive. But when a nuclear nightmare is on its way, life suddenly changes for everyone. As they prepare for what could be the end, an American scientist conducts an experiment underground. They don't know if this could be any worse.