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Intro
Back before the End, when Shen Fever will wipe out most of the world’s population, leading to society’s collapse, Candace is watching movies in her boyfriend Jonathan’s basement apartment in Brooklyn. Jonathan tells Candace he’s become disillusioned with New York City and is planning on leaving for Maine. The next morning, Candace goes in to work at Spectra to find the whole office in an all-hands meeting about a new virus spreading in China called “Shen Fever.” Spectra produces print runs of books, and often works with manufacturers in China, specifically in the Shenzhen region where the virus is said to come from.
In the present, Candace travels with a group of eight other survivors toward Chicago. Bob, the group’s self-appointed leader, has convinced the group to travel to a place he calls “the Facility”—a multi-story building he and some friends purchased in the event of an apocalypse. Around the fire, Bob proselytizes about the group being chosen, and the utility of their executions— “releasing”—of fevered on “stalks,” Bob’s word for their looting missions. Candace pushes back on Bob’s assertion that the fevered are already dead, but then she becomes nauseous and rushes into the woods to vomit.
Candace recalls the summer of 2006 when she first moved to New York after college. One night, she has sex with an older man, Stephen Reitman. The following day, she sees him on TV promoting his book about the laziness of millennials. While Candace’s friends get jobs, she spends her days wandering the city taking photos for her blog, NY Ghost. Candace receives a package of belongings from her mother who died of dementia a few years prior. The package includes preserved shark fins, and Candace and her roommate decide to throw a dinner party where they make shark fin soup. Stephen shows up to the party and offers Candace a job working for his brother Michael Reitman, the CEO of Spectra, a company that publishes Bibles in Asian countries. Candace is morally opposed to the company’s work—and of how she got the job offer. Ashamed and overwhelmed, she goes out to the fire escape for a cigarette. It’s there where she first meets Jonathan, who is subletting the apartment below.
Back in the present, the group of survivors continues towards the Facility. They stop at a house to perform a stalk for supplies. Inside, Candace observes the fevered Gower family performing their zombielike routines. Bob forces Candace to execute the fevered daughter Paige after he catches Candace trying to hide the little girl.
Back before the End, after the shark fin party, Candace recalls going to meet with Michael Reitman where she is offered a job. Soon, Candace is going on a business trip with Blythe to Hong Kong and mainland China to oversee a print run of Bibles. Candace and Blythe visit the Shenzhen factory of Phoenix Sun and Moon Ltd., where Candace observes the rote, degrading monotony of the factory workers’ labor.
Back in the present, the group continues their journey to the Facility. Candace travels in a car with survivors Ashley, Janelle, and Evan. One night, Candace overhears them discussing splintering from the group, and Janelle insists they include Candace. Candace finds out they have been going on “baby-stalks” at night to re-up on weed and asks to join them. The group goes to Ashely’s childhood home nearby to look for her weed stash. While the group explore the house, Ashley becomes fevered. Janelle stays to try and snap her out of it while Candace and Evan flee. Bob is waiting for them at camp and drives them back to the house. In the back of the car, Candace admits to Evan that she is pregnant. Bob shoots Ashley and Janelle, who tries to protect Ashley. He blames their deaths on Evan and Candace.
Back before the End, Jonathan and Candace begin dating in earnest after they split a U-Haul to move to their apartments in Brooklyn. The two spend countless nights together on Jonathan’s mattress, watching movies on his projector. Candace works at Spectra for five years, her life tunneling into intense routine. By the time Shen starts to spread, it is summer, and Candace goes out for drinks with her coworkers Blythe and Lane. At Lane’s apartment, Candace encounters her first fevered person: Lane’s neighbor. The following week, Candace buys a pregnancy test on her way home from work, and discovers she is pregnant with Jonathan’s baby.
In the present, the group finally arrives at the Facility, which turns out to be a mall in suburban Illinois. Bob imprisons Candace, having learned of her pregnancy and plan to escape from Evan. While imprisoned, Candace recalls her parents’ experience immigrating to the U.S. from China after fleeing the rise of authoritarianism in the 1980s. Her father worked tirelessly and refused to return while her mother missed home and became heavily involved in the Chinese Christian Community Church in Salt Lake City. Her father died in a car accident, and her mother later passed from dementia while Candace was in college, leaving her an orphan.
Back in the days leading up to the End, Candace and Jonathan spend their last night together during Hurricane Mathilde. Shen Fever continues to spread, and Jonathan tries to convince Candace to leave with him, but she refuses. She decides she is going to have the baby, but she doesn’t tell Jonathan. In the month after Jonathan leaves, the scale of the pandemic ramps up. Candace remains at work after Spectra offers her a large sum of money to stay at the office while everyone else transitions to remote work.
In the present, Candace remains imprisoned in the mall. Evan is allowed to move freely but also cannot leave. One morning, the group finds him dead from an apparent overdose. The pregnancy advances and Candace decides to name the girl Luna for her nocturnal movements. At night, Candace hears Bob pacing the Facility restlessly. Candace begins to be visited by visions of her mother, who encourages her to keep surviving and find a way to escape.
Back in the leadup to the End, Candace continues going to work long after the city falls apart. Observing the collapse and natural reclamation of the urban space, Candace revives NY Ghost, and it quickly becomes one of the main news sources for survivors as major outlets fail. Candace spends her time documenting the city, and eventually moves into the Spectra offices with the help of Eddie the taxi driver after the shuttles and buses fail.
In the present, Candace convinces Bob to move her to more comfortable arrangements. Bob admits to her that he chose the mall because of his nostalgic attachment to it, having gone there as a child when his parents were getting divorced. Candace sees her opportunity one night to escape when she learns where the car keys will be left after Todd goes out for a stalk. A vision of her mother tells her the time is now.
Back in the past, Candace gets locked out of the Spectra building and becomes disoriented from the nausea of her pregnancy. She suddenly realizes she is totally alone in the city and needs to escape. She finds herself at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel and Eddie’s taxi appears, except Eddie has become fevered. Candace pulls Eddie from the taxi and drives away, but later wonders if he was even fevered at all.
In the present, Candace attempts to escape. She encounters Bob pacing the halls and fears she has been caught until she realizes Bob has become fevered. Candace kicks Bob to death and before escaping with one of the cars. She drives down Milwaukee Avenue into Chicago until the car runs out of gas and then gets out to walk, disappearing into the urban vastness.
