Alarm bells are ringing. The world is on a knife-edge, expecting a major catastrophe to occur at any time-perhaps as an outcome of widespread environmental disaster, of a cataclysmic natural disaster, an especially virulent pandemic, a ruinous third world war, or even a nuclear apocalypse. In West Africa, a young woman searches desperately for a way to keep safe from the impending danger and comes face to face with a different reality-that...