Fifty-year-old Ernie Chase is just another liquor-soaked husk wandering the streets of New York City looking for his next drink; his body is broken and his mind is a slave to addiction. Things change when he is shot while witnessing a back alley drug deal. He imagines that his life is finally over, but instead he awakens to discover that he is handcuffed to a cot in an abandoned hospital and is somehow sober, healthy and 25 years younger. Ernie is told that he has been infected with a dangerous virus which requires him to consume human blood to stay alive. He is given a simple choice by his captor; receive continuing treatment for his strange new condition in exchange for lifelong service, or face certain death. His job is simple now: Recruit for the Farm. Distribute the Product to the Infected. It all seems so uncomplicated until other Infected start to descend on the city, looking for their next fix.