On October 21st, the town of Chester's Mill, Maine, USA, is suddenly and inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible barrier. No-one can get in and no-one can get out. An estimated 2,000 people are trapped inside what they begin to call 'the Dome'. Later that day the airspace over Chester's Mill is declared a no-fly zone. While the rest of the world looks on in fascination, life under the Dome takes a sinister turn, as a new social order develops. And the lives of ordinary people are thrown into the realm of the extraordinary ...