In the 1950s, sixteen-year-old Joanna has been living with her overbearing Aunt Martha in a low-income New York City tenement building ever since a violent outburst left her fighting a feeling she can only describe as the “darkness.” Little did she know that weeks after moving in, a biological threat from the Soviet Union would leave the building boarded up and the tenants locked inside.

It’s been one month since they were first sequestered. With food dwindling and Martha’s controversial role as leader expanding, Joanna realizes that she must face both her darkness and her aunt in order to save the tenants. But can she take on the leadership without letting the darkness take over her entirely?