 In 2019, when most of the outside world has been contaminated, a community of people, rescued from the toxic environment, live by utopian standards in an isolated colony. The only rules of living are selected for them such as; clothing, meals, leisure, and jobs are all structured and controlled. Everyone in the community anticipates a special event, the lottery, in which one person wins a chance to move to a paradise, the only uncontaminated area left on Earth, known as "The Island."