Will and Samantha are a young couple expecting their first child. He flies from Seattle to visit her parents in Chicago, intending to ask her father Tom for permission to marry Sam. At dinner, Tom and Will get into an argument, and Will leaves without mentioning the pregnancy or wedding. The next day, Sam calls Will before his flight back. She becomes scared when she hears a strange sound, and says, “Something’s wrong,” before the line goes dead. At the airport, all flights are cancelled. There is a TV news report discussing preliminary reports on a seismic event off the West Coast of the US that has disrupted electrical power and telecommunication.