Samantha, a young horticulturist, and the rest of humanity grew up knowing that an asteroid called Finis would come in twenty years and destroy Earth. That deadline is approaching, and the rest of society has left in spaceships to travel to another planet called Earth the Sequel. Samantha and a few other scientists whose families have died have been hired to stay on Earth (in Svalbard) until a couple days before the asteroid's strike to finish cataloging and collecting plants that will be taken to Earth the Sequel.

One day, Samantha is told to take lunch to Hagen, who lives an hour's walk through the snow. He is another horticulturist who is particularly obsessed with flowers. He also has no living relatives, just like every other scientist involved with the project. The two develop a friendship, and Hagen tells Samantha he will not evacuate with the rest of the scientists. He wants to stay behind on Earth as it is destroyed. None of the scientists will survive long enough to reach the new planet, as it is many years away, and he does not want to die on a spaceship.

Samantha thinks back on her childhood; she grew up knowing that Finis would come, that there would be no future for her on Earth. Her mother, who loved orchids, died of pancreatic cancer. Her father committed suicide a few years later. The two were divorced. Hagen and Samantha work together to catalog the orchids. Samantha tells him she wants to stay behind, just like him; she has fixed up a boat and named it after her mother--Naomi. She will sail out to sea and watch the Earth as it is destroyed because it has been the source of so much beauty throughout her life.

Samantha and her friends debate which records they will take onto the spaceship. One day at work, Samantha is cataloging an orchid. She realizes it is a new species that has never been discovered. She discovers it just a couple days before the asteroid strikes. She goes to tell Hagen and finally breaks down in tears due to the gravity of the situation.

Samantha recalls when she discovered that her divorced parents wrote letters to each other, recounting all the minutiae of their lives, all the little beauties and messiness of human existence. With that in mind, as the rest of her friends (except Hagen) fly off in the spaceships, she sails out to sea to watch the world around her be destroyed.