Stewart, George R

A mysterious plague has destroyed the vast majority of the human race. Isherwood Williams returns from a wilderness field trip to discover that civilization has vanished during his absence. Eventually, in San Francisco, he encounters a female survivor who becomes his wife. Around them and their children a small community develops, but rebuilding civilization is beyond their resources, and gradually they return to a simpler way of life.

Presents the story of the ill-fated Donner party, which set out for California in 1846 and became trapped in a blizzard while crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains, incorporating diaries of survivors and other contemporary documents.