American astronaut Jeff Hale is killed when his space shuttle is hit by debris. But when Hale awakens, he is resurrected on the banks of a gigantic river, near land that looks Earth-like, despite the unusually-colored sky and the two suns and three moons. In this barbaric place called Riverworld, Hale and a group of survivors must band together to try to unravel its mysteries while fending off the resurrected dictator determined to control the land.