Cowen Rosewell lives with a small group of old friends in a scruffy flat in a small English town. Like many teens leaving school in 2014, there are few prospects or opportunities for people like Cowen so he has enrolled on a BTEC media course as a way of passing the time. His first assignment is to record everything during a week of his life. At first Cowen dismisses the random acts of violence he witnesses as the business as usual in a small English town. However, when one of his best friends is savagely attacked by a stranger, and in defending her they kill her assailant, the inexplicably serious nature of the dead assailant's injuries alert them to a more disturbing reality. As events escalate, Cowen and his friends discover that the town has come under a mysterious malign influence which is somehow controlling organized gangs who are rounding people up and taking them to a nearby factory. The friends hide, hoping to escape, but their sanctuary is discovered and overrun. Finally Cowen must make his way alone to the factory in search of his loved ones. The evil force that awaits him there has implications not just for Cowen, but for the entire world.