A blizzard rages outside. A bus carrying evacuees from a boarding school crashes, stranding the occupants inside. A group of people in a cable car awake to find themselves hanging precariously over the mountains with no way to escape. At an isolated ski chalet known as "The Retreat", the inhabitants begin turning on each other as their power supply begins to fail. All of these stories intertwine as the characters struggle to survive the elements, each other and a virus that threatens all humanity. At the outset, it's a little hard to keep all the players straight, but all the action winnows down the numbers rather quickly. The multiple perspectives keeps the reader on their toes and guessing at the connections. This novel should appeal to a wide variety of readers because it can't be pinned down into one genre.