On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.
 
 
All hell has broken loose in Chester's Mill after an invisible force field suddenly and inexplicably descends on the small Maine town, isolating all within it from the outside world. As the grim reality of the situation dawns and panic sets in, each other town's denizens reveals their true nature in the face of shortages, rationing, lawlessness, and uncertainty.

Their survival depends on Dale "Barbie" Barbara, an ex-army drifter who leads a few intrepid citizens in a race to uncover the sinister forces intent on holding the town hostage under the dome - and to raise it before there's on one left alive in Chester's Mill...