A brilliant but arrogant meteorologist, pilot, and occasional Hurricane Hunter. His twin sister, a bitter, acid-tongued nuclear physicist on the verge of a breakthrough. Their other sister, an anxious, needling, passive-aggressive, very politically connected right-wing mom. Her daughter, a progressive activist acutely aware of the flaws in everyone and everything—except herself and her circle.

And one unprecedented storm.

In the near future, climate change has continued unabated, and the media landscape makes it harder than ever to solve problems. Podcasts, streaming, and social media have triumphed utterly, and anyone can be a self-appointed “expert.” People’s attention spans are negligible, half of America sees science as a threat, and populist demagogues have vast audiences. In this world, the sound bite is everything.

When Leonard, the world’s first observed hypercane, forms and threatens the Gulf Coast, can Americans put their differences and distractions aside just this once? Or is it already too late to do anything but laugh bitterly as Earth forces humanity to accept its long-overdue “inheritance”?