Angela Beck, a geology professor of great renown and esteem, discovers unusual heat waves in the Nevada desert. Her fears are confirmed when she encounters Dr. Elias Varo, a scientist who has been ridiculed for predicting a catastrophic collapse of the core. Currently, cities are disintegrating, rivers are desiccating, and the western United States is being split by scorching fissures. The government hastily organizes a desperate initiative to bore into the earth and inject an explosive material that could potentially halt the destruction.