All I can do is whatever I can to save myself from this wealthy above the law menace. If you are human and care about others, then you are also infected. Good people are targets under this multi century reign of terror. Society could collapse over it or perhaps we could learn how to persuade ths justice system to “see” and prosecute the most murderous criminals in this world - like the child trafficking terrorist I call “D”. I loudly demand Justice and I beg you to as well. Our lives really do hang in the balance.

. . .

It’s is a question of such things:

On June 13, at a top-secret government laboratory in Northern California, a weaponized version of influenza, called Project Blue, is accidentally released. A U.S. Army soldier, Charlie Campion, escapes the lab and flees across the country with his wife and daughter, unintentionally spreading the virus. On June 17, Campion crashes his car into a gas station in Arnette, Texas, where Stu Redman and some friends are gathered. With his wife and child already dead from the superflu, Campion warns Redman that he had been pursued by a "Dark Man" before he succumbs to the virus as well. The next day, the U.S. military arrives to quarantine the town on orders from General Starkey, commander of Project Blue.

The townspeople are taken to a CDC facility in Stovington, Vermont. All but Stu succumb to the superflu, called "Captain Trips" by the populace, which kills 99.4% of the world's population in two weeks. The scattered survivors include would-be rock star Larry Underwood, deaf mute Nick Andros, Frannie Goldsmith and her unborn child, her teenaged neighbor Harold Lauder, imprisoned criminal Lloyd Henreid, and "Trashcan Man", a mentally ill arsonist and scavenger. The survivors begin having visions, either from kindly Mother Abagail, or from the demonic "Dark Man" Randall Flagg. The dreams counsel the survivors to either travel to Nebraska to meet Abagail, or to Las Vegas to join Flagg.

Lloyd is freed from prison by Flagg in exchange for becoming his second in command. Trashcan Man destroys fuel tanks across the Midwest and is directed to Las Vegas by Flagg. Larry escapes New York City with a mysterious virginal woman named Nadine Cross. Despite their mutual attraction, Nadine is unable to consummate a relationship with Larry because of her visions of Flagg, who commands her to join him; she leaves Larry to travel on her own. Larry then meets a school teacher named Lucy Swann, and a traumatized boy she calls Joe, outside Des Moines, Iowa, which has burned to the ground. After escaping the CDC facility, Stu gathers a group of survivors, including Frannie, Harold, and former college professor Glen Bateman. They are joined by various other immune survivors.

Harold is consumed with jealousy over Stu's leadership of the group and his growing relationship with Frannie, on whom Harold has an unrequited crush. Nick barely escapes an attempt on his life in Shoyo, Arkansas by the bigoted town bully, and makes his way across the Mid-South. Nick ends up in May, Oklahoma where he meets Tom Cullen, a mentally challenged man who spells every meaningful word he utters as M-O-O-N. The two men travel into Kansas, and encounter Julie Lawry, a vicious girl who vows to kill them when they refuse to let her join them. Nick and Tom then meet kindly farmer Ralph Brentner, and the three head west together in Ralph's pickup truck. Nick's group reaches Abagail's farm in Hemingford Home, Nebraska. She warns that a great conflict is imminent and they must travel to Boulder, Colorado. The survivors form a community called the Boulder Free Zone and begin restoring civilization.

Flagg sets up a brutal autocratic regime in Las Vegas which he rules with an iron fist, with the intent of defeating the Boulder survivors using salvaged nuclear weapons, which he sends "Trashcan Man" out to find. Harold's resentment toward Stu and Frannie intensifies, causing him to be seduced by Nadine and join forces with Flagg. Abagail, convinced that she has fallen into the sin of pride, leaves Boulder to walk in the wildernessin an act of atonement. Three Boulder survivors are chosen by the Free Zone Committee to infiltrate Las Vegas as spies: Tom, Dayna Jurgens, and Judge Farris. Glen hypnotizes Tom to follow a specific set of instructions, including that he leave Las Vegas at the next full moon.

Harold and Nadine plant a bomb in Frannie and Stu's home using demolition dynamite, planning to set it off during a meeting of the Free Zone Committee. A weakened Abagail returns to town, and gives a psychic warning to the council members. Most of the council escape the explosion, but Nick and a few others are killed. Before she dies, Abagail tells Stu, Larry, Glen, Ralph, and Frannie that God commands that the men must travel by foot to Las Vegas to confront Flagg, but one of them will fall along the way. When Nadine and Harold flee Boulder, Flagg causes Harold to be crippled in a motorcycle accident. Nadine leaves him in a ravine, and he kills himself with a gun the next day. Once Nadine reaches the desert, Flagg calls her to him. She realizes that she has made a terrible mistake and tries to escape, but Flagg declares it is too late for her to turn back, reveals his true demonic form, and rapes her. Nadine is catatonic following the sexual attack by Flagg, and her hair has turned white. Flagg's men intercept Judge Farris, who is accidentally killed by one of his henchmen, Bobby Terry, before he can be tortured. Flagg tears Bobby to pieces for not following instructions. Upon returning to Las Vegas, Flagg has Dayna brought to him. He plans to torture her for information about the identity of the third spy. Flagg saw Judge Farris and Dayna with his powers, but whenever he tries to see the third spy, all he sees is the moon. After a failed attempt to kill Flagg, Dayna kills herself before he can extract any useful information from her.

Tom leaves Las Vegas when the moon is full, but Julie Lawry recognizes him; she tries to alert Flagg, but Tom escapes into the desert and hides from Flagg and his men. A crazed Nadine taunts Flagg that he is losing control over his empire. She then commits suicide by jumping off the hotel balcony with the demon baby he conceived in her. With winter approaching, Stu, Larry, Glen, and Ralph leave Boulder to set out on their quest. Stu breaks his leg when he falls in a dry riverbed, and must be left behind with Glen's dog, Kojak. The remaining three are captured by Flagg's forces a few days later, and Glen is separated from Larry and Ralph. Flagg orders Lloyd to shoot and kill Glen after he taunts Flagg. As Larry and Ralph endure a show trial on Fremont Street, Flagg uses his powers to silence a dissenter, striking him with a ball of plasma energy emitted from his fingers. "Trashcan Man" arrives at that moment towing a stolen nuclear warhead with an ATV and showing signs of radiation poisoning, so Flagg orders Lloyd to kill him. Flagg is unable to stop the energy ball from transforming into a spectral hand, the Hand of God, and it detonates the nuclear bomb as the voice of Mother Abagail declares that God's promise has been kept, and welcomes Larry and Ralph into heaven. Las Vegas is destroyed by the nuclear blast, and Flagg is apparently killed along with all of his followers.

Stu is rescued by Tom, and they witness the nuclear explosion together. Tom and Stu find a working car and make it to a nearby cabin where Tom sets Stu's leg just as a winter storm arrives. Stu contracts the flu, but in a dream, Nick comes to Tom and tells him which medicine to give him. Stu recovers from the infection after a number of days, and the two of them return to Boulder in a snowstorm via a Snowcat. Stu finds that Frannie has given birth to a daughter, whom she has named Abagail. The baby has contracted the superflu, but she is able to fight off the virus. Lucy reveals that she is pregnant with Larry's child, and Joe sees a spectral image of Mother Abagail, as she blesses the newborn baby. Assured that the immune survivors can safely reproduce, the inhabitants of Boulder set to work rebuilding the world.