In 1983 all children aged nine years or less fall into a coma at the same time. The children remain in the coma for the next 10 years and all children born during this time are born into the same state. Ten years later Tom Russel, who was imprisoned after killing a man in a fight, is released from prison and returns to his home town where his older brother has a son in a coma. That night all the children wake up but they are hellbent on killing all the adults. It soon becomes apparent that the children share a sort of collective consciousness and as one learns they all learn. As they get smarter they learn to disable motor vehicles and eventually to use firearms. A group of survivors, led by Tom and Jean, try to escape to the safety of a base located 60 km outside the town.