Eli Roth is a self-loathing adolescent savior living in a Washington, D.C., concentration camp with his terminally ill mother and the little brother he brought back to life. When Eli's mother dies, he must fulfill the promise he made to her to escape with Daniel and show him that life can be good, even in their bleak and treacherous post-apocalyptic world. But when things don't work out at their grandmother's house, Eli and Daniel are taken in by a tennis-obsessed cult of lesser gods, who interpret Eli's epileptic seizures and overly sensitive palate as sure signs that the boy is the Antichrist and must be destroyed.