Set in the days of civilization's collapse， Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star， his would-be savior， and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region， risking everything for art and humanity。

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear。 Hours later， the world as we know it begins to dissolve。 Moving back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future， when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful， elegiac， spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor， the man who tried to save him， the actor's first wife， his oldest friend， and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony， caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet。