The protagonists work for the USGS. Much of the book consists of breathless descriptions of the work that they do and its importance—predicting seismic and volcanic activity. We are given exquisite details as they monitor the activity stirred up around them. After their office is destroyed in an earthquake, the staff relocates to the protagonist’s home, and sets up their equipment to begin monitoring again. All of this appears to be for naught, as they never seem to do anything with the data they have collected. Their frenzied activity never results in an effective warning to anyone. They would have been better off loading everything up into a vehicle and driving to Boise