It's the summer of 1977 and a suffocating heatwave has enveloped New York City. On the brink of financial ruin due to an ongoing fiscal crisis, and with a crumbling infrastructure stretching public resources to their breaking point, the city is on the precipice of catastrophe. Organized crime syndicates, gangs, and outlaws rule a city overrun by crime, poverty, and violence.

Socialite Carolina Lynch has been kidnapped by one of these gangs and is being held for ransom in one of the five boroughs. Former Force Recon Marine and Vietnam War veteran Vicente "Vic" Espada is working as a Fugitive Apprehension Agent for a failing bail bonds company and living check to check without very many options. But when Vic's friend and former Force Recon sergeant Oran Burke approaches him with a job offer to find Carolina and lead Oran's team of highly trained operatives to her location, Vic thinks his luck is changing for the better.

But things don't go as planned and with New York City plunged into darkness by a citywide blackout, Vic and Carolina find themselves alone and on the run from her violent kidnappers and their homicidal leader. Through an urban nightmare filled with marauders and psychopaths, Vic and Carolina must make their way to safety while trying to survive one night in Fear City.