The Gladers have lived for three years in a community surrounded by stone walls, with a new boy delivered monthly by an elevator. Designated "Runners" map the ever-changing maze during the day, as it closes at night. It takes place in a world suffering from a coronal mass ejection and whose surviving civilians fight to avoid an apocalyptic illness called the Flare. It is written from the perspective of Thomas, a 16-year-old boy who wakes up with no memories inside an artificially produced maze.