Some connections are beautiful. Some are deadly. For thriller novelist Miranda Birky , strange yellow flowers appearing overnight in perfect geometric patterns across her lawn is just another bizarre small-town occurrence—until people who touch them begin to change. Miranda runs to her neighbor, biology teacher Alan Raasch , for help. They discover an unsettling truth: the yellow bloom isn't just changing people—it's connecting them into a vast living network with a consciousness and purpose of its own. With the military compromised, authorities infected, and "Make Earth Bloom Again" communities rising everywhere, Miranda becomes the target of the movement's charismatic leader—a long-haired, bearded guru known only as Echo. But Echo doesn't want to eliminate Miranda; he wants to make her his perfect counterpart in a new world order of love, peace, kindness, and collective wisdom. As former friends succumb to the bloom, Miranda and Alan face an impossible choice. Join the promised utopia or rescue the individuals trapped in the neural matrix in the face of complete breakdown.