In the spring of 1929, a team of student botanists arrives in an uncharted forest somewhere in North America on an expedition to map the native flora. Their professor is absent, and their food supplies have been destroyed. After a day of waiting for his return, they set out to search for the missing professor. The professor is found deceased, wearing a gas mask, in a nearby abandoned mining town. Gradually, some of the students begin to fall ill to an unknown pathogen.
The professor's protégé, Matsudaira Basho, Matt to the other students, is able to deduce from the complete absence of animal life in the region that the pathogen may be an endophyte present in the local plants and transmitted by consumption of plants or through inhalation of pollen. With food supplies running short, the group decides to trek through the forest to reach a railway where a monthly train is expected to pass in several days’ time. They prepare by boiling local plant harvests to render them non-pathogenic and fashion biohazard suits with gas masks to protect themselves.
As they press on, illness spreads among the remaining students. They notice a distant pine forest from a lookout and hypothesize that pine needles may carry an antigen capable of shielding them from the other local plant life. Along the way, Avis Tasker, the team’s nurse, falls behind and collapses due to a breach in her breathing apparatus. Matt notices this and returns to aid her, which isolates him from Ora Blackwood and Haviland Corey, the two others who remain with the group. Haviland Corey urges Ora Blackwood to push forward toward the forest, hoping Matt can rejoin them there.
Matt, meanwhile, wanders into an area filled with hammocks and encounters a little girl; both turn out to be hallucinations. He also hallucinates other deceased teammates. Ora and Haviland hear his whistle and Haviland sets out to find him, leaving Ora to rest, certain she is exhausted. He promises to be back by morning, and returns shortly after she wakes, carrying Matt. Haviland is maskless, having given his mask to Matt, who he found without one. He passes, and Ora nurses Matt back to health as they resume their journey, having lost a day. Matt stops and removes his own mask, but insists Ora keep hers on. He reveals that he plans to stay behind because he knows he is slowing her down, and Ora now has only two days to reach the train. She protests, but he convinces her that she must survive to reach the university and return with help so they may study and understand this organism.
Ora continues onward alone. She finally reaches the railway and collapses. When she wakes, she removes her mask and hears the train approaching.
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