Dry Summary

On the afternoon of June 4, Nevada and Arizona close their dams on the Colorado River, meaning that no water can reach California. The state of California then cuts off water to all homes and businesses. Teenaged Alyssa watches the coverage of the Tap-Out with Alyssa’s mom and Alyssa’s dad, and she’s certain this will be a lifechanging event for everyone.

That evening, Alyssa’s Uncle Basil takes her and her little brother, Garrett, to Costco to buy water. But the water is gone. Alyssa loads a cart with bags of ice, but other shoppers try and take the ice from her. She and her family ultimately make it home with all their ice, which they put into a bathtub to melt. The neighbor boy, Kelton, helps carry the ice in and seal the drain. His family are preppers, so they’re prepared for the Tap-Out—unlike everyone else. He finds it all exciting, and he’s happy to help Alyssa, on whom he’s had a crush for years. Uncle Basil leaves that night for his girlfriend, Daphne’s, house in Dove Canyon, where there’s still water.

Over the next few days, things get progressively worse. Alyssa and Garrett’s parents head to the beach, where FEMA has set up desalination machines. However, they don’t return. Kelton’s dad, Mr. McCracken, gets into altercations with the neighbors when they approach to ask for water or other supplies. He believes people should be self-sufficient and figure it out themselves—and that if they help one person, the rest of the neighborhood will take everything they have. Mrs. McCracken finds this viewpoint selfish and offensive.

When Kelton learns that Alyssa and Garrett’s parents haven’t returned from the beach, he offers to stay the night at their house and accompany them to the beach tomorrow. He brings his gun with him, which scares and angers Alyssa when she finds it in the morning. However, after a frightening altercation at a gas station, Alyssa accepts the gun as a useful defensive measure. The beach is empty when they reach it, and the sand is covered in ringing phones. There’s no sign of Alyssa’s parents. As they return to their bikes, they encounter a few boys harassing an old man who they believe has water. Kelton pulls his gun on a boy, Dalton, when Dalton threatens Alyssa, but he finds he can’t shoot. In the scuffle that follows, Jacqui appears, snatches the gun, and takes the old man’s keys. Kelton notices that she has an infected cut on her arm, so he promises her antibiotics if he drives him, Alyssa, and Garrett home. Jacqui grudgingly agrees.

At the McCrackens’ house, Kelton plays his parents off each other to get Mr. McCracken to agree to let his friends stay the night. At dinner, Mr. McCracken announces that he and his family will leave for their bug-out in the woods tomorrow, even if Kelton’s older brother, Brady, hasn’t come home yet to join them. Alyssa, Garrett, and Jacqui can stay here. However, early in the morning, the neighbors converge on the house, and someone opens the back door. Mr. McCracken shoots—and only then realizes that the intruder was Brady. Alyssa stops Kelton from shooting the neighbors, who trash the house looking for supplies, and Jacqui drives the neighbors and Garrett out of the neighborhood.

Kelton agrees to lead his friends to the bug-out, but as they need a taller vehicle to get there, they head for Dove Canyon to ask Uncle Basil for his truck. Uncle Basil is clearly unwell, and Kelton believes he has dysentery. Basil reveals that he traded his truck to a kid, Henry, for ÁguaViva bottled water. The teens head for Henry’s house, which is filled with electronics, sports memorabilia, and other valuables Henry has “acquired” selling the ÁguaViva. When Henry discovers that his final box of water is actually filled with ÁguaViva brochures, he tapes it back up, acts like it’s actually full of water, and agrees to bring it along if the others allow him to join them. Alyssa agrees.

The group drives on main roads until soldiers direct them to an emergency center. It’s clear that there’s not enough water, even here—and when Henry spots body bags, the group hurries away, recovering the ÁguaViva box from a soldier in the process. They drive the truck down into an aqueduct and follow canals and riverbeds north, until they’re nearly out of gas. When they drive onto the gridlocked freeway looking for gas to siphon, they encounter an old woman, Charity, who has established a commune on the freeway and has a way of getting water. She declines to give them water (they’re not dehydrated enough), but she offers them food and shelter for the night. Henry, who has a knack for manipulating people, discovers that Kelton once spied on Alyssa with a drone. He uses this information to turn Alyssa against Kelton and sow strife among the group.

The following morning, the group resumes their journey into the mountains. Brush fires have now sprung up into full-blown wildfires, and radio broadcasts say that the fires are threatening the routes people are walking to Big Bear Lake and Arrowhead Lake. Finally, they reach the bug-out. But when Kelton goes inside, it’s trashed, and the water is gone. He realizes that Brady has been living here. The group then decides to open the ÁguaViva box and discovers the brochures. Kelton tackles Henry, and Jacqui gives Kelton his gun back. They tie Henry up and decide to continue on a few miles, to the nearby reservoir that will have water in it, as it’s used to supply firefighting aircraft with water.

A few miles on, the group hears music. They discover two men (Benji and Kyle) sitting around an open campfire, and they’re clearly dangerous and violent. Henry escapes from the group when Garrett faints, and he trades the truck keys to Benji and Kyle for a drink of water. The men then approach the truck and threaten to rape Alyssa. When Garrett comes to and bites one of the men, they move to shoot him—but Kelton shoots and kills both men. Kelton, Jacqui, and Alyssa head to the campsite to try and take their water, but their campfire is now out of control. Alyssa finds a single cup of water in the camper, along with Benji and Kyle’s elderly mother. The woman refuses to leave the camper despite the flames. Alyssa manages to revive Garrett with the remaining water, but Jacqui burns her hands badly.

Kelton drives on, but he soon crashes the truck. They continue on foot toward the reservoir through the thick smoke. Jacqui believes she can see the water, so she races alone through the flames. Kelton, Alyssa, and Garrett continue around the fire—but Kelton collapses, and at the top of a ridge, Alyssa sees that a sheer cliff separates them from the reservoir. They won’t make it. The fire is right behind them, and Alyssa decides to shoot herself, Kelton, and Garrett to save them from an even more painful death by fire. But before she can, a firefighting aircraft dumps water on them, saving them.

The Tap-Out ends two days later. A few weeks later, school is back in session and Disneyland reopens. The Tap-Out killed 200,000 people. Kelton’s parents are divorcing, and Alyssa’s parents are fine—they spent the crisis in the hospital and in jail, where there was water. Now, Alyssa and Kelton prepare to go visit Jacqui in the hospital, where she’s being treated for burns. She listed Alyssa as her emergency contact.