Set in a sun-scorched, post-apocalyptic Germany in 2016, the film follows three survivors—Marie, Hannah Herzsprung, her younger sister Leonie, Lisa Vicari, and Phillip, Lars Eidinger—as they navigate a world where daylight is deadly, crops have failed, water is scarce, and social order has collapsed. The trio travels in a battered Volvo station wagon with metal mesh on the windows, trying to shield themselves from the sun’s glare while they search for a rumored source of water in the mountains.
On this harsh journey, they scavenge wrecked cars and gas stations for fuel, water, and food, staying vigilant for hostile survivors who might attack. The ride is tense, and every stop becomes a careful balance between resource gathering and keeping the group safe under the burning sky.
At a ruined gas station, Phillip tries to salvage gasoline from underground tanks while the women search the buildings. A hooded man steals their supplies and then holds Leonie hostage. After a struggle, they subdue the aggressor, who reveals himself as Tom, Stipe Erceg, a mechanic. Phillip agrees to bring Tom along as a passenger in the car, on their search for water, if Tom will repair the heat-damaged engine.
The road toward the mountains remains treacherous and obstructed by a colossal metal structure. The group works together to move the barrier, and two of them search a wrecked car for supplies, leaving Leonie alone in the car. A sudden, desperate scream breaks the uneasy quiet—the blocked road was a trap, and Leonie has been abducted by carjackers.
Reunited after the tense confrontation, Tom convinces the others to attempt a rescue. They follow a distant plume of smoke to a survivors’ encampment, where captives are kept chained. Tom lays out a plan to create a diversion using a Molotov cocktail so Marie can reclaim the car and rescue Leonie. The rescue attempt falters: Marie manages to start the car and escape with Phillip, but Leonie remains bound and Phillip’s foot is badly injured in the dash to safety. Despite Marie’s insistence that Leonie is not lost, the fear and danger push the trio to split up and press on separately.
Marie, driven by resolve, heads off alone to find Leonie. She collapses in a ruined church and is found by Elisabeth, a middle-aged farmer who offers water and invites her to rest at the family farm. Marie sleeps in Elisabeth’s barn, only to awaken and discover that she’s being kept inside. Peering out, she sees captives being moved about. Elisabeth explains that Phillip will be used as livestock to feed the family, and that Marie and Leonie will be forced into marriages with Elisabeth’s sons when food runs low.
Inside the barn, Micha, Elisabeth’s son, Yoann Blanc, tries to exert control, but Marie resists and strikes him with a heavy object. Injured, Micha fights back, and Leonie arrives to help by knocking him unconscious. Leonie then escapes into the woods, while Marie is bound and taken to the slaughterhouse. There, Marie witnesses Phillip’s execution but manages to cut herself free and locate Tom among the captives. The captives flee the farm as Elisabeth’s family gives chase, and Tom fights to defend them, dispatching several pursuers. Marie escapes once more and runs through the forest in search of Leonie.
Marie eventually finds Leonie; the sisters reunite and, together with Tom, they flee toward the mountains in search of water. From a ridge, they glimpse birds flying overhead, but the valley below reveals nothing but an even more desolate, blighted wasteland stretching to the horizon.
