Lewis Crane was a child when the devasting Los Angeles earthquake of 1994 ripped his life apart, leaving him the sole survivor of his family.

Now, thirty years later, Crane is the world's leading seismologist, with a burning hatred for quakes. Determined to protect people from his parents' fate, he has developed a unique theory of earthquake prediction - but in a world run by Chinese-controlled corporations and an America split more radically than ever along racist and religious lines, there are plenty of people who don't want him to succeed.

Then it happens: a massive rolling and shaking that promises to register 8.5 on the Richter scale. And only Crane knows an even bigger 'big one' is coming: an incredible Richter 10 that will bring unimaginable destruction.

He knows where. He knows when. He even knows how to stop it. But will anyone - can anyone - believe him?