An Airbus flight from London to Johannesburg crashlands on a remote Ethiopian Plateau. Only 120 passengers survive in a world that has been turned upside down. For two years they are forced to survive in dire circumstances, fighting off hyenas, with no sunlight or heavenly bodies to guide them but above all battling to come to terms with their bleak futures. They eventually settle in Red Valley and over the following 80 years the original survivors and their descendants, establish three very different villages. The mysterious Red Priestess manipulates and controls the citizens who are subjected to religious intolerance, internecine strife, murder, rape, and witchcraft. She has a master plan but to succeed she needs the support of every villager but they are sworn enemies. The looming threat of the cannibalistic Lost Tribe hangs over them like a shadow, while the murky history of the burning of a witch and assassination of a Jesuit priest comes back to haunt them. It is imperative that they join forces and depart from the cursed Red Valley or face starvation but who will lead them into an unknown and dangerous Africa?