Humanity has a hidden name, a “secret cord” known and feared in our unconscious minds for millennia. Uttered for the first time in human history, it has the power to control our very essence, altering us at the cellular level and changing us into mindless reapers intent on sharing the irresistible name; transforming all who hear and calling them to join the danse.

In the first year since the start of the zombie apocalypse, Andrew Moore and his young daughter have struggled to survive. As monsters patrol the streets in search of unwitting recruits for their army of shambling sirens, the Moores are making their way toward the Atlantic coast in hope of refuge on one of the government’s offshore sanctuaries. Meanwhile, Mark Bell has been stranded alone in the relative safety of a defensible state park. He has learned to survive and thrive despite the constant threat from the menacing masses of wandering undead.

As winter looms, the two men meet, and they decide to band together in a compromise plan to sail into Lake Erie; but can they survive long enough to reach their goal, or will the peculiar stranger they meet along the way put their chances of survival at risk?