Twenty-five years after the end of oil, Dev hears the shocking sound of hoof beats on the road. No one has been up the road in six years, and now the last people he wants to see have arrived. A dozen armed men on horseback, promising a return of government and order.

Dev doesn't believe their promises, and they come with too terrible a cost, starting with a tax of food he cannot spare. He and the neighbors are barely scraping by, the sharp bite of hunger their constant companion. He had feared that drought and heat would slowly kill them all, but now the danger is much more immediate.

They must find a way to survive this new threat. But with no weapons better than a handful of bows, how can they defend against all those rifles?