Thousands of people have gone missing around the globe. All people find are letters saying goodbye and a white card with a black circle in the middle.
THE CORE is an organization that goes back millennia. What some call a cult used to be how the world was organized, but through time, and violence, memories have been erased. Now, however, THE CORE is on the rise, and behind it all is a man named Alex.
Every day Alex shares stories of a forgotten past and convinces ordinary people to leave their lives. Every night he tells Alice, his wife, about it all. He tells her about the four pillars, about those that have passed over, but as the news becomes subsumed with the missing, she begins to understand the true scope of his involvement.
What she doesn't know is Alex, and those in his life, are being hunted.
After Alex is told to destroy his office and never return, as Alice's father, the sheriff, begins to close in, and after the messiah is put on trial, all discover what they are willing to do, and give up, for the family they have chosen.