Connor finds his parents' signed Unwind order and decides to run away before it can be carried out.

Ariana refuses to run away with Connor at the last moment, leaving him alone and on the run.

Connor flees police across a highway, causing a bus crash that throws him together with Risa and Lev.

Connor pulls Lev from his parents' car on the highway, kidnapping him against his will.

Connor, Risa, and Lev board a school bus using a storked baby as cover for their escape.

Lev slips away and reports to the school office, telling staff he has been kidnapped.

A sympathetic teacher discovers Connor and Risa hiding in the school and secretly directs them to Sonia's antique shop.

Connor, Risa, and other Unwinds are sealed into airline packing crates and transported to the Graveyard.

Connor and Risa arrive at the Graveyard, a hidden desert safe haven for runaway Unwinds run by the Admiral.

The Admiral's five most trusted kids are found suffocated in a crate, and he asks Connor to investigate.

Roland secretly calls the Juvey-cops after piloting the Admiral's helicopter to a hospital.

Juvey-cops arrest Connor, Risa, and Lev and transport them to a harvest camp to be unwound.

Lev and two clapper companions detonate explosive compounds inside the harvest camp, destroying the facility.

Connor stumbles out of the Chop Shop battered but alive as Unwinds rise up against the guards.

Connor wakes in a hospital under a new identity with Roland's shark-tattooed arm transplanted onto him.

Connor, Risa, and Lev are three teenagers scheduled to be unwound who each escape their fates through a series of desperate actions. After a highway accident brings the three together, they rely on a network of sympathizers to stay hidden while building a fragile alliance. Their journey leads them to the Graveyard, a hidden desert safe haven where hundreds of runaway Unwinds survive under the Admiral's protection. When Roland betrays them to the authorities, they are captured and taken to a harvest camp where unwinding seems inevitable. A dramatic explosion at the camp triggers a revolt and gives Connor, Risa, and Lev each a different path to survival. In the aftermath, each character emerges fundamentally changed, having beaten the system through identity, disability, and sacrifice.

The core escape and survival of three Unwinds.

A truck driver hides Connor from police and shows him his own transplanted arm from an Unwind.

Risa performs at a state home piano recital but is ordered for unwinding due to budget cuts.

Lev's tithing party ends with his older brother's bitter toast questioning the practice of tithing children.

Connor and Risa overpower a pursuing cop in the woods and take his tranquilizer gun.

Connor picks up an abandoned storked baby from a doorstep despite Risa's strong objections.

Connor tells Risa the childhood story of a storked baby in his neighborhood who was passed around and died.

Risa shouts a false Clappers alarm to trigger a stampede and cover her and Connor's escape from the school.

Connor meets Roland and hears his story in the secret underground hideout beneath Sonia's antique shop.

Sonia asks Connor to write a letter to someone he loves, and he breaks down writing one to his parents.

Risa warns Connor that Roland is subtly manipulating the other Unwinds and wants to destroy him, not just fight him.

Risa earns a medic position at the Graveyard after instinctively helping a boy with a bloody nose.

Connor calms a mob of Unwinds trying to destroy the Admiral's jet and prevents further violence.

Risa plays piano in the harvest camp band positioned directly above the Chop Shop.

Risa is paralyzed in the harvest camp explosion and refuses a transplant, which exempts her from unwinding.

CyFi testifies before Congress against unwinding, becoming an unexpected public voice for the cause.

Behind the core escape story lies a web of smaller but essential events that define the world and characters of Unwind. Each protagonist has a distinct backstory explaining their situation before the chaos begins, from Risa's state home recital to Lev's family tithing party. As Connor, Risa, and Lev navigate safe houses, they encounter helpers and threats, form bonds, and are shaped by specific emotional moments. At the Graveyard, Risa finds purpose as a medic and warns Connor about Roland's manipulations, while Connor uncovers a talent for fixing broken things. The harvest camp strips away all pretense of safety, forcing Risa to play piano above the very room where her friends may die. The story ends with unexpected hope as CyFi, transformed by his own encounter with unwinding's consequences, speaks out before Congress.

The people, places, and moments behind the main story.

Pastor Dan shouts for Lev to run just as Connor grabs him, shocking Lev to his core.

Lev calls Pastor Dan from the school nurse's office and learns his parents never reported him missing.

Lev is trampled in the school stampede and realizes he has destroyed his only friendships.

Lev meets CyFi on the road and begins traveling with him toward an unknown destination.

CyFi reveals that his right temporal lobe was replaced with an Unwind's, causing him to fight himself.

Roland corners Risa alone in the warehouse bathroom and attempts to assault her.

Connor walks in on Roland and Risa and feigns indifference, using the moment as a calculated power play.

Connor and his crate companions debate whether an Unwind retains a soul after being dismembered.

CyFi, overtaken by the Unwind's personality, confronts the Unwind's parents in Joplin and begs them not to unwind him.

Lev screams at the Unwind's parents to promise not to unwind their son, then flees feeling permanently changed.

The Admiral confesses to Connor that he ordered his own son unwound and helped create the Bill of Life.

Lev discovers that his companions at the Graveyard are Clappers with explosive detonators hidden in their palms.

Connor and Risa meet secretly in the harvest camp and share a kiss, knowing they may soon be unwound.

Lev spots Connor being led to the Chop Shop and races to trigger the explosion plan early.

Pastor Dan visits Lev in his cell and reveals he has left the church, and Lev wonders if he can still believe in God.

Beneath the action of Unwind lies a series of pivotal decisions and revelations that fundamentally alter each character's understanding of themselves and their world. Lev's journey is the most dramatic, beginning with Pastor Dan's shocking command to run and progressing through CyFi's confrontation with his past, which ignites a rage in Lev that steers him toward the Clappers. Connor's growth from impulsive fighter to strategic thinker is marked by moments like his calculated bathroom power play against Roland and his philosophical debate about the soul during the crate transport. The Admiral's confession about unwinding his own son reveals the human cost borne even by those who helped create the system. These moments of clarity and transformation culminate in Lev's choice not to clap, and in a final conversation with Pastor Dan that offers a fragile but real hope for something new.