When the massive metal tank filled with sticky brown molasses that rises up over her crowded North End neighborhood explodes, young Carmen must fight for her life, as a tsunami of molasses rushes through the streets.

Leah dreams of leaving behind the crowded streets of Boston's North End neighborhood to journey west. It's the only way she'll have the future she wants - one that doesn't involve her getting married or working in a factory. But then the molasses tank at the local plant explodes, sweeping through the city streets. The wave destroys everything in its path, and suddenly Leah must fight to survive if she wants to have any future at all.