Attempting to alleviate increased floods induced by Climate Change, weather scientist Graham Steele is engaged in experiments with a high powered fine tuned laser pulse to re-direct rain out to sea. His wife Claire, a survey geologist and amateur astronomer, is sceptical. Their friends, Stephen and Debbie, expecting their first child, act as referees in several disputes. During an horrific thunderstorm, electrical power is cut and Oliver and Eva at the transmission station struggle to restore it but their equipment is severely damaged. Morgan and Craig, local police officers, and other villagers in Eliot struggle when power is not restored immediately. Doctors Telford and Richmond and Nurse Julia Farrell strive to cope as the numbers of sick and injured people arriving at the Danbury's St Mary's Hospital increase and they don't have their usual equipment to help them. As time passes and electricity is still not restored people are forced to adjust their daily lives to cope as best they can, hoping things will get better as they endeavour to survive a bitter winter. Other severe environmental problems arise following a rare extra-terrestrial event which causes far more devastation and sickness than anyone could anticipate. Will life ever be quite the same again?