When Nigel Walden is 14, the Unhappenings begin. His first girlfriend disappears the day after their first kiss with no indication she ever existed....

In the ruins of his world, Harrison Cody follows a mysterious voice on the radio as he and his pixie sidekick travel on foot across a terrifyingly random landscape....

Eight years have passed since the Mayhem Wave forever altered the world to a blend of science and magic and since Harrison Cody rescued 28 teenage girls from human traffickers. Now they are disappearing, and he suspects their former captors....

An expedition is launched to determine the Mayhem Wave's origin. Other nations have arisen in the ashes of the old world, not all of them friendly. They find the ruins of a once-great city and the possible source of the wave, the work of a man acting alone with uncertain motives....