Roseanne Rogers trudges from place to place, searching for another living human being. A newspaper headline reports a scientist's warning that detonating a new type of atomic bomb could cause the extinction of humanity. Roseanne arrives at her aunt's isolated hillside house and faints when she finds Michael already living there. At first, she is too numb to speak and slow to recover. She later resists Michael's attempted sexual assault and also reveals that she is married and pregnant. Two more survivors arrive in a car, attracted by the smoke from the house's chimney. Oliver P. Barnstaple is an elderly bank clerk who is in denial, believing that he is simply on vacation. Since the atomic disaster, he has been under the care of the thoughtful and affable Charles. Both survived because they were accidentally locked in a bank vault when the disaster happened. Roseanne was in a hospital's lead-lined X-ray room, while Michael was in an elevator in the
Empire State Building. Barnstaple becomes ill and Michael suspects that is caused by radiation poisoning, but Barnstaple later appears to recover and insists on seeing the nearby ocean. They drag a man out of the ocean, a mountain climber named Eric who was stranded on
Mount Everest by a blizzard during the disaster. He tells how he reached the base camp only to find everyone dead, then walked through Asia and Europe finding the same situation. He reached the sea and sailed to Hawaii, but there were only more bodies. He found a plane and flew to the mainland United States, crashing because of fuel starvation just short of land. Barnstaple dies peacefully on the beach. The next day, Charles helps Michael with his construction project. Michael sees Roseanne bringing food to Eric and remarks that he believes that Eric is exaggerating his condition and that Roseanne should not be catering to his whims. Eric sows discord among the group and theorizes that they are immune to the radiation, and he wants to find other survivors. Michael is skeptical and warns that radiation will be most concentrated in the cities that Eric wants to search. Eric reveals himself as a racist who cannot tolerate living with Charles, who is black. Charles and Eric fight, stopping only when Roseanne begins labor and gives birth to a boy, delivered by Michael. While the others work to make a better life, Eric wanders away alone and drives their
jeep through the group's cultivated field, destroying some crops. Michael orders Eric to leave, but Eric produces a pistol and announces that he will leave only when he is ready. Late one night, Eric tells Roseanne that he is going to the city of Oak Ridge. Hoping to discover her husband's fate, Roseanne agrees to accompany Eric as he had hoped, but he insists that she not tell Michael. After stealing supplies, Eric is stopped by Charles, and in the ensuing struggle, Eric stabs Charles in the back, killing him. When they reach the city, Eric begins looting, while Roseanne finds her husband's office and then a nearby hospital's waiting room, where she discovers her husband's remains. She wants to return to Michael, but Eric refuses to free her. When they struggle, Eric's shirt is torn open, revealing signs of advanced
radiation poisoning. In despair, he runs away. Roseanne begins the long walk back to the house, but along the way, her baby dies. Michael, who has been searching for her, eventually finds her. After burying her son, they return to the house. Michael silently resumes cultivating the soil, and Roseanne joins him. ==Cast==