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The novel is set in 2040, twenty-six years after a catastrophic event known as "the Rising," when two laboratory-engineered viruses, a common-cold cure and a cancer-curing filovirus, accidentally combined to create Kellis-Amberlee. The virus lies dormant in every living mammal and activates upon death or contact with live-state virus (the active infectious form of Kellis-Amberlee), reanimating the host as a zombie. In this transformed world, bloggers replaced traditional media as the trusted news source after mainstream outlets failed to report the truth during the initial outbreak. Georgia Mason, a twenty-two-year-old online journalist known as a "Newsie" (a factual reporter), narrates from Berkeley, California, where she runs the blog site After the End Times with her adopted brother Shaun, an "Irwin" (a thrill-seeking blogger who films encounters with the infected), and their technical expert Buffy Meissonier, a "Fictional" (a blogger who writes poetry and fiction). Georgia has retinal Kellis-Amberlee, a condition that permanently dilates her pupils, granting low-light vision but extreme sensitivity to light.

The team's fortunes change when Senator Peter Ryman of Wisconsin, a moderate Republican running for president, selects them as his official blogging press corps, the first time a candidate has invited bloggers on the campaign trail. Georgia and Shaun celebrate with their adoptive parents, Stacy and Michael Mason, bloggers who adopted the siblings as infants largely as a ratings strategy. The team launches After the End Times as an independent site, recruiting subordinate contributors called beta bloggers, including Mahir Gowda, Georgia's London-based second-in-command.

At a secure location near Clayton, California, the team meets Senator Ryman and his wife Emily, who runs the family horse ranch in Parrish, Wisconsin. The senator privately asks Georgia to minimize Emily's media exposure to protect their family from extremists who advocate killing all large mammals, extending Mason's Law, a statute that restricts private ownership of mammals large enough to amplify Kellis-Amberlee. The campaign hits the road, and at a rally in Eakly, Oklahoma, Ryman delivers a speech that earns the team a top-three Internet rating. That night, zombies breach the convoy's perimeter fence, killing four guards. Buffy and Chuck Wong, the senator's tech specialist, discover that the perimeter sensors had their wires deliberately cut. The attack was sabotage.

Reviewing security footage, Shaun notices that a guard was shot through the kneecap during the attack, proving a human shooter incapacitated defenders to let the zombies through. The campaign continues toward Super Tuesday. Georgia interviews Governor David Tate of Texas, Ryman's chief in-party rival, a decorated military veteran and far-right conservative who frames the zombie plague as divine punishment. She finds Tate frightening and writes a sharp editorial warning her readers. Rick Cousins, a thirty-four-year-old former newspaper journalist, joins the team from a rival campaign. Ryman wins the primary with a seventy percent majority.

As Ryman accepts the Republican nomination, Buffy contacts Georgia with devastating news: An outbreak has struck the Ryman family ranch. A horse has undergone amplification (the activation of dormant Kellis-Amberlee into a fully infectious state), triggering infections that kill Rebecca Ryman, the senator's eighteen-year-old eldest daughter, along with her grandparents and much of the ranch staff. Rebecca dies heroically, riding an amplified horse to carry her younger sisters to safety. Georgia must watch the Rymans celebrate on stage, knowing their daughter is dead. Ryman later selects Tate as his running mate.

Suspicious that the ranch outbreak was deliberate, Georgia obtains the senator's permission to investigate. In the yearling barn, the team uncovers an intact syringe in the stall of the first infected horse. Lab analysis confirms the syringe held ninety-five percent live-state Kellis-Amberlee, proving Rebecca was murdered through bioterrorism. An army unit surrounds them and attempts to seize the evidence, but the team has been broadcasting live, and Senator Ryman intervenes, forcing the military to share its findings.

At a tense private meeting, Tate pushes to remove the blogging team from the campaign, while Buffy, frightened by the escalating danger, advocates for leaving. Emily Ryman forcefully overrides Tate, and the team stays. As the campaign travels toward Houston, a sniper fires on their caravan, disabling three of four vehicles. The equipment truck overturns, and Chuck Wong dies on impact, reanimates, and bites Buffy before Shaun can shoot him. A blood test confirms Buffy is infected.

As the virus takes hold, Buffy confesses she had been feeding campaign information to unnamed contacts who claimed to be working for America's spiritual renewal. She gave them access to the team's databases, including schedules and security details. She did not know anyone would be killed until after the ranch outbreak, at which point she severed contact, prompting her handlers to try to eliminate the entire team. She directs the team to hidden files containing time stamps, IP addresses, and access codes for listening devices she planted. Georgia shoots Buffy to prevent full conversion.

Georgia calls the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but an anonymous caller has already reported the team as dead. A biohazard team sedates and transports them to isolation, where all three test clean. In Houston, the team activates Buffy's planted bugs and captures a recording of Governor Tate confirming his involvement in the attacks. Georgia fires the entire staff, then re-hires those willing to accept the danger, and privately tasks Mahir with fleeing to Ireland with all files if the conspiracy destroys them.

Over the following weeks, team members Dave and Alaric trace the money and discover that payments to Tate originated from tobacco companies and from IP addresses within the CDC in Atlanta, suggesting the conspiracy extends into the federal government. In Sacramento, Georgia crashes Senator Ryman's formal dinner to present the evidence, but the senator refuses to listen, threatening to expel the team unless she presents proof before he returns to the compound. Back at the compound, the team's trailers explode. During the chaos, Georgia is struck by a hypodermic dart loaded with live-state Kellis-Amberlee. A blood test confirms she is undergoing irreversible amplification.

Shaun administers a sedative to slow the process. Rick leaves with a backup drive, instructed to upload everything to the site. With Shaun standing behind her, gun at the base of her skull, Georgia writes her final blog post: a live-feed report revealing the conspiracy, urging readers to download the evidence, and begging the public to resist those who use fear to control them. Her writing degrades as the virus overtakes her. Shaun fires.

The narrative shifts to Shaun's perspective. Rick confirms Georgia's final transmission has gone viral, and the CDC issues a press statement confirming her death. Shaun hires Mahir to lead the Newsies with full authority over the site. After testing clean, Shaun arms himself and fights through a zombie outbreak across the Sacramento compound with Steve, the head of Ryman's security detail. They reach the convention hall, where Shaun confronts Tate before witnesses, broadcasting live. Tate confirms his motives: He believes the nation needs controlled outbreaks to restore its moral seriousness. He seizes Emily as a hostage with a syringe of live Kellis-Amberlee, but she breaks free. Tate injects himself, declaring himself a martyr, and Shaun shoots him dead with Georgia's gun.

Three months later, Shaun has moved out of his parents' house, unable to tolerate their attempts to capitalize on Georgia's death for ratings. He has retired from fieldwork and taken over site administration. Rick has left the team to become Ryman's new vice presidential running mate. Mahir flies from London for Georgia's funeral, meeting Shaun in person for the first time. Shaun hears Georgia's voice in his head, a coping mechanism he refuses to abandon. Surrounded by surviving team members, Shaun reflects on whether the truth was worth everything it cost, unable to answer the question.