The first major warning comes when two young men, Kevin and Nick, return to the reserve on snowmobiles after escaping the chaos of their university city hundreds of kilometers to the south. Their harrowing report confirms the nightmare: the collapse is widespread, and help is not coming. Their arrival, however, is quickly followed by a far more ominous figure: a large, silent white man named Justin Scott. Towing a sled full of supplies, Scott follows the young men’s snowmobile tracks and presents himself as a survivalist seeking shelter from the crumbling society to the south. The chief and council reluctantly allow him to stay, but Evan and others instinctively distrust him, particularly his unnatural confidence.