Liam’s invisible wounds took away his ability to feel the emotions he once had. His untreated condition drives him to suicidal thoughts, uncontrollable anger, and a disconnection from life as a whole. He finds that his only connection to life and return to some level of normalcy comes from the touch of his wife. After his untimely but natural death, he is reanimated by science 60 years later, only to find that his wife is dead, a major war has changed society, and his prior condition is cured. 

His only penance for being reanimated is that he no longer can grieve and cannot mourn the death of his wife, whom he so desperately knows he misses and loves. Liam's journey after his reanimation drives him to question his own philosophies, his religious beliefs, and the science that brought him back to what is perceived to be simple but unfamiliar society. After reading the letters his wife wrote to him after his death and the building relationships with his now elder children and last surviving friend, he begins to understand the world around him and what his purpose is to humanity is and what he must do to protect it.