In Milan, Italy, on one typical Friday night, Piero Manzano has a close shave with a car accident when traffic lights unexpectedly stop working. Little did he know that this incident marked the onset of a widespread blackout blanketing not only his city but all of Europe. Simultaneously, in the capital city of Rome, operators overseeing the electricity grid observe the power failure extending to parts of multiple countries including northern Italy.

Amidst this chaos, Herwig Oberstätter, an engineer stationed at an Austrian hydroelectric plant, senses an impending disaster when the plant's generators start shaking violently. Meanwhile, in Germany, Jochen Pewalski, the person in charge of power distribution across the grid, witnesses power losses across significant portions of Europe. Despite his best efforts, he is unable to halt this outage from encroaching into Germany.

The blackout brings life to a screeching halt - air and train travel gets suspended, cars collide, people get stuck in elevators. In the French capital of Paris, fire brigades are on an emergency mission to rescue those trapped in subway trains and buildings.

Back in Milan, Addled from his narrow escape from the accident, Manzano stumbles back home from the hospital amidst the darkness engulfing the city. His neighbor Carlo Bondoni pays him a visit, and they deduce that the blackout source is external - likely triggered by new smart electric meters installed by an American company.

Further down the map, in Austria, four friends - Chloe, Sophia, Fleur, and Lara - find their skiing trip cut short as petrol stations too succumb to the power outage. They wind up spending the night at a service station restaurant now bustling with stranded folks. The situation doesn't improve the following day; with the pumps still out of service, they choose to seek alternative shelter.

The blackout hampered vital infrastructure across Europe. Those responsible for the electricity grid toil to salvage the situation, albeit without any concrete information about the blackout's cause or recovery timeline. This plunge into darkness leaves millions vulnerable, having to depend on alternate power sources.

The perspective of each character from various countries embodies the abruptness and severity of the blackout, a silent yet pervasive menace that grappled an entire continent.