Hig introduces life at the abandoned Erie airport, where he and Bangley patrol an eight-mile perimeter with Jasper.

Five intruders approach Hig's house at night and Hig shoots all five, including a nine-year-old boy.

Bangley reveals he was watching Hig through a rifle scope during the attack, unsettling Hig deeply.

Hig recalls suffocating his dying wife Melissa with a pillow, honoring her own desperate request to end her suffering.

Hig shoots two men at a soda trailer after one warns him about approaching Arab forces.

Bangley furiously criticizes Hig for killing the only available source of intelligence about the Arab threat.

Jasper dies in his sleep while Hig is on an extended mountain hunting and fishing trip.

Nine men stalk Hig from behind; Bangley guides him by radio and Hig shoots four of the attackers.

Hig takes off alone in the Beast and flies west toward Grand Junction to find the radio voice.

Pops shoots at the Beast from the ground, shattering the cockpit glass and cutting Hig's face with shards.

Pops ambushes Hig from behind and binds his shoulders with rope outside the stone house.

Cima orders Pops to release Hig, and the three share the best meal Hig has eaten in nine years.

Hig follows a Grand Junction tower voice's landing instructions but spots a wire trap stretched across the runway.

Pops shoots the ambush shooter through the tower gun port, ending the threat at Grand Junction airport.

Hig lands at Erie to find the hangar half-destroyed and Bangley alive but covered in dried blood.

The Dog Stars follows Hig, a pilot living at an abandoned Colorado airport nine years after a flu pandemic devastated humanity. Hig and his survivalist partner Bangley defend their eight-mile perimeter with lethal force while Hig carries the grief of losing his wife Melissa and, later, his beloved dog Jasper. After Jasper dies, Hig flies west in his Cessna hoping to find the source of a radio voice he heard years earlier, leading him to Pops and Cima in a remote canyon. The three travel together toward Grand Junction, where they narrowly survive a deadly trap set at the airport control tower. Returning to Erie, they find the hangar destroyed and Bangley barely alive, caked in dried blood. Together the four survivors begin forging a fragile but hopeful new life among the ruins.

The headline journey from survival to reunion.

Bangley joins Hig on a perimeter patrol flight and stays silent after learning the people below are Mennonites.

Hig and Bangley work together to construct a watchtower at the Erie airport.

Hig plants his annual garden with string beans, spinach, potatoes, tomatoes, and corn.

Hig flies a perimeter check before leaving on a planned multi-day mountain hunting and fishing trip.

Hig hikes deep into the mountains and hugs a tree, overwhelmed by nostalgia for what the land once was.

Hig camps alone in the mountains and finds rare peaceful clarity as two stars appear above the darkening forest.

Hig visits the Mennonite families and holds a little girl's hand, overcome with grief over Jasper's death.

Flying west, Hig notices wildlife increasing in the landscape below but growing hopelessness replaces his joy of flying.

Hig throws a smoke bomb to gauge wind direction and lands the Beast safely near the stone house.

Hig approaches the stone house and finds it empty, with an overturned bucket and cooking spoon in the yard.

Hig writes a peace message on a quilt, hangs it over the canyon edge, and tosses a warning grenade below.

Hig and Pops use the Beast's Pilot Operating Handbook to calculate takeoff distances and map out the flight.

Pops stays behind and repairs highway potholes as a makeshift landing strip while Hig and Cima fly ahead.

Hig and Pops enter the tower and find the shooter is a sobbing elderly man clutching his gut wound.

Cima nurses Bangley back to health; Bangley calls her Mrs. Hig and she corrects him as Dr. Hig.

Beneath the main arc of survival and travel, The Dog Stars is built from smaller moments of routine, grief, and human connection. From Hig's early patrol flights with Bangley to his annual garden planting and solitary mountain hikes, the novel establishes the rhythms of life after civilization's collapse. Hig's emotional visit with the quarantined Mennonite families and his flight west—marked by growing hopelessness mixed with wonder—set the stage for his discovery of Pops and Cima. The tense ground negotiation in the canyon, the careful flight planning, and the grim discovery inside the Grand Junction tower deepen the story's stakes at every turn. The novel closes with Cima's medical skills saving Bangley's life and all four survivors beginning an unlikely new chapter together. These secondary moments reveal that survival in this world depends as much on human tenderness as it does on tactical skill.

The quieter moments that build the story's world.

Years before the story begins, Hig hears an unknown voice respond over the airplane radio, igniting fragile hope.

Hig recalls that when fleeing Denver at the collapse's start, he grabbed only seed packets and potatoes.

During a mountain camping night, Hig reflects that killing has become as routine to him as any daily chore.

Bangley radios a warning that nine men are stalking Hig and instructs him to act casual while moving toward a draw.

Bangley reveals he was raised on a farm and tells Hig he is the only family Bangley has known since losing his wife and son.

Hig spots a woman and a large garden from the air and decides to land despite dangerously low fuel.

Pops fires shots that blast sandstone chips across Hig's face during their tense canyon standoff.

Cima reveals that her husband died alone while she was away, and his dying calls haunt her recurring dreams.

Cima steps out of the water and reveals her body to Hig while he swims, beginning their romantic relationship.

Cima tells Hig how her high school counselor pushed her to write about ranch life and her brother Bo's death for her Dartmouth essay.

Cima reveals the flu likely spread when a military courier transported a biological sample on a flight to England.

Hig realizes his recurring nightmares about Melissa have been replaced by vivid dreams of tigers and mountain lions.

Flying toward Erie, the group sees Grand Junction below as a charred ruin, causing Cima to vomit at the sight.

Hig hears two 747s roar overhead and attempts to contact them by radio, but receives no response.

Hig and Cima sleep under the stars and rename constellations together, including one named for a scrappy fish-loving dog.

The Dog Stars is driven by pivotal moments of revelation, loss, and transformation that redirect Hig's inner life and outward journey. A radio voice heard years before the narrative present plants the seed of Hig's westward flight, which finally launches when Jasper's death and mounting despair push Hig past the point of no return. Meeting Pops and Cima brings both mortal danger and the possibility of renewed love, while Cima's revelations about the flu's origins and her haunted guilt over her husband's death give the story deeper emotional roots. As Hig and Cima's relationship becomes romantic, his nightmares about Melissa give way to vivid dreams of powerful animals, marking a profound psychological shift. The flight home over ruined Grand Junction delivers fresh grief, but the novel closes with Hig and Cima quietly renaming constellations together, reclaiming small acts of meaning in a permanently changed world.