Vic, a 14-year-old girl, struggles to survive in the harsh climate of future Los Angeles. Vic finds her father dead in their backyard sauna from an apparent suicide. Vic thinks about the last interactions she had with her father, and how they discussed the ever-changing climate of California, as well as their family’s growing money troubles. Left to fend for themselves and with even less money for water, their most expensive need, Vic’s mother destroys the sauna in a fury. Vic thinks about how much of the world has already been destroyed by fires and floods, or submerged under the rising ocean. The richest people have gone to live in a space colony on the moon, and people like Vic and her family are left to live in nearly-inhospitable areas. Vic wonders what it was that caused her father to lose his will to live, as other people had continued on despite their imminent demise, and why her mother seems so angry and callous about his death. Vic decides to get a job doing manual labor for a group that builds and transports sandbags, which become extremely valuable during flooding season. Vic is determined to make her own way despite the difficulty of life in the heat. Vic meets the sandbaggers along the Pacific Coast Highway and is introduced to Amara, the leader of the group. Despite feeling intimidated by the older, rugged woman, Vic impresses Amara with her confidence and she is hired as a sandbagger. After a day of grueling work in the sun, Vic and Amara head back to the headquarters to drop off the bags. They bond over their shared resilience. Amara offers to give Vic a ride home in exchange for two eggs from her family’s chicken coop, and Vic agrees. When they arrive at Vic’s house, Amara and Vic’s mother have a tense standoff. It is clear that they recognize each other, but Vic does not know why. Amara reveals that she knew Vic’s father. Vic realizes that there must be a connection between Amara and a woman named Cheryl, with whom her father had been having an affair. Vic wants to know more about the relationship between the three women and her father, but her mother refuses to speak to her. That night, Vic sneaks out of the house and returns to the sandbaggers’ headquarters to confront Amara. When she arrives, her mother is already there. Vic’s mother reveals that she had paid Cheryl to move to Manitoba, Canada in order to end the affair. Vic realizes that Cheryl’s sudden departure is what drove her father to suicide. After this difficult conversation, Vic and her mother bond over their shared grief and abandonment.