Of What Remains is a Thriller Webtoon Original created by Sillvi Studios; it updates every Monday.
Despite Webtoon's official genre being Thriller, Of What Remains is a post-apocalyptic action drama, according to the author.
Logline[]
In a frozen world shrouded by nuclear winter, a pregnant teenager and her estranged father embark on a perilous journey south in search of warmth and safety.
Synopsis[]
Act I
In 1983, against the backdrop of the Cold War, 17-year-old Kim flees New York after her abusive boyfriend’s violent attempt to force an abortion and her stepfather Jack's insistence on the medical procedure. She seeks refuge in her rural hometown of Gardenville, Kansas, accompanied by her only friend, Ellie, refusing to abandon her child as her father did her. Upon arrival, she discovers her long-lost dog, Sven, and her estranged father, Tony, who vanished seven years ago just before her birthday. Why did he leave? Where was he when her mother died? Their reunion is fraught with unresolved emotions and questions as a nuclear catastrophe erupts when a Soviet radar misinterprets a launch signal, igniting a mutually assured destruction.
Act II
The group seeks nearest shelter in Lindberg’s General Store, but chaos erupts when the frantic owner shoots Tony with a squib-loaded shotgun, gravely wounding him and breaking her own neck. As Tony moves to end her suffering, Peter, the kind sheriff, misreads the situation and attacks, leaving Tony hovering on the brink of death. In the turmoil, Kim, desperate to protect her father whom she wishes she could truly despise, shoots the sheriff with his fallen pistol, leaving her distraught.
After 3 weeks, as radiation levels subside, 26-year-old Simon rushes to the abandoned shop, where he finds his mother and Peter, the man who filled the void left by his deceased father, both dead. Swearing vengeance, he allies with Rick, the town’s muscle. Meanwhile, Tony leads the others to a hidden military bunker to which he has an inexplicable access. From there, he reaches out to a network of government bunkers strategically placed across the country, managing to establish contact with only one: Dr. Hoffman. She hypothesizes that the government is constructing a large nuclear shelter in Costa Rica and needs a pilot. Recognizing that their current shelter is unsustainable amid the encroaching nuclear winter, Tony agrees to assist. However, as they prepare to escape, Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha—a 24-man team of elite soldiers trained to handle national-level threats—invades, led by Hal, a ghost from Tony’s past and a psychopathic rapist, who captures the girls in Tony's absence.
In the chaos, Hal exposes Tony's dark past as the Babayka, a legendary USSR agent turned double agent, captured while seeking a rare cheeseburger sticker—a birthday gift for his daughter—and coerced into service under the threat to his family's safety. He was subjected to lethal experiments and missions meant for the expendable, but always returned. The bunker plunges into darkness as the Babayka engages in a grueling battle, weaving through flashes of muzzle fire and striking all 24 soldiers with ruthless precision, aided by Sven’s timely intervention, before collapsing, his body succumbing to its injuries. As the bunker burns, drawing the attention of Rick and Simon, the girls drag the unconscious Tony to the train he had prepared. With Rick firing as the train pulls away, Simon holds his fire upon seeing Sven, the dog he had cared for as his own in his owner's absence. Ellie, shot, hands Kim a handful of envelopes secured from the soldiers, shoves her into the cab with Sven and her injured father, and locks the door before jumping off. Kim screams as Ellie stumbles to the station, yanking the railway switch to divert the train from crashing into fallen debris, sacrificing herself for her best friend.
With the pain of losing Ellie fresh and Tony unresponsive, Kim opens the envelopes and finds birthday letters from her father—confiscated by the government and never delivered. The last letter features a hand-drawn cheeseburger sticker, with Tony apologizing for not being able to give her the real thing and wishing her a happy 18th birthday. The train roars through the frostbitten landscape, drowning out Kim's anguished cries.
Kim’s train screeches to a halt as she pulls the brake, spotting the destroyed rail ahead, causing it to derail and draw the attention of nearby raiders. During the attack, Kim escapes on a makeshift sled with her unconscious father and Sven, losing her wallet with her mother's photo as they race downhill with only a bag of canned food. The raiders return to their base, presenting their leader wrapped in gauze with the loot and the wallet. He opens it and stares fixated at the photo with his one remaining eye.
Kim huddles in a hidden cave, rationing their meager food to her ailing father while neglecting her own hunger. While gathering firewood, she collapses from anemia. Awakened by Sven’s frantic barking, Tony uncovers her buried in snow. Desperate, he carries her back to the cave and searches for red meat, finding only dead, contaminated animals. In despair, he teeters on sacrificing Sven to feed Kim but ultimately cannot bear to do it. Distracted, Tony fails to notice the man wrapped in gauze arriving in a military light utility vehicle filled with their stolen supplies. When the man hands over the supplies and vehicle, Tony stands guard in disbelief. He recognizes the voice—the one that tore him from his family. "Why?" he demands.
Jack, the former leader of Operation Detachment Alpha tasked with capturing the Babayka, had fallen in love with Tony’s wife, Janet. He married her in Tony’s absence and adopted Kim as his daughter, with his resignation on hold. After Kim disappears following a violent incident with her boyfriend, Jack returns to duty to pursue her. En route to Gardenville, he is grievously injured, barely surviving the nuclear explosions—all leading him here in a desperate race against time to find Kim before his injuries claim him.
"Why?" Jack repeats. "Because she's my daughter too." Not wanting Kim to endure the pain of losing another parent, Jack decides it’s better for her to believe he died with the rest of the world. While feeding her warm beef broth, he whispers his final goodbye to his unconscious daughter, choosing to stay behind as Tony drives away to Hoffman’s bunker with Kim and Sven at his side. There, Jack succumbs, embraced by ice.
274 days later, Kim nears the end of her pregnancy as they arrive at Hoffman’s bunker. Boarding the plane to Costa Rica, they remain unaware that Hal, Simon, and Rick, who arrived ahead of them, are already hidden aboard, following the route Tony meticulously mapped out in Gardenville. A fierce battle erupts, culminating in Rick falling from the plane and Hal being hurled into the engine, unleashing a gruesome explosion. Amid the chaos, Kim falls through the fuselage. In an instant, Tony grabs a parachute, Simon, and Sven, diving into the void. He thrusts Sven into Simon's arms, commanding, “Don’t you dare let go,” then secures the parachute onto Simon and pulls the release cord. Tony plunges toward Kim, catching her just in time. He pulls her close as they hurtle down, the parachute blossoming above them before crashing into the frozen trees below and landing on a pile of snow. Tony is impaled by a jagged bough and faints. The plane lands atop the mountain, exploding in a fiery cascade that triggers an avalanche. With his remaining strength, Tony shields Kim from the falling debris.
Despite the rough landing that left them disoriented yet alive, Sven tirelessly scours the snow for his owners, now buried six feet under, pushing himself to the limit and refusing to drink or rest, while Simon reluctantly follows, the barren snow offering no trace of life. With Tony bleeding out and unresponsive, hope dwindles as Kim goes into labor, desperation crashing over her. Forced to confront her trauma, she reaches for Peter's pistol—the weapon she has refused to touch since using it to kill the kind man in a desperate bid to save her father, unable to forgive herself. She recalls Peter’s last words: “It’s not your fault.” In a moment of determination and liberation, she fires a shot into the snow above, the echo piercing the cold air and allowing Sven to pick up their scent.
Unable to bear watching Sven struggle to dig with his missing front leg, Simon reluctantly helps to uncover his enemies from the snow. Tony survives, but Kim, cradled in his arms, whispers her final words to her father before she takes her last breath.
Act III
Amidst Tony’s anguished screams, Sven, whom Simon had cared for as his own, collapses from overexertion, reigniting Simon’s search for vengeance. Grabbing Peter’s gun, he points it at Tony and utters, “Everywhere you go, anyone I love dies.” Tony, his world shattered, tells him to pull the trigger. He wants to be with Kim. Simon hesitates, the trigger heavy in his grasp, but ultimately rejects revenge—it’s not what Peter would’ve wanted. “I swore I’d make you suffer worse than death,” he whispers before departing, cradling Sven's lifeless body.
Alone with Sven in his lap, Simon points the gun beneath his jaw, having lost everyone he’s ever loved. A soft whine from Sven, reaching for his water flask, breaks through Simon's despair. He pulls Sven close, feeding him the last of his water, ambiguous determination filling his eyes.
Tony, broken and hollow, kneels lifelessly, holding Kim—his entire world—until he hears the soft wail of his granddaughter in her arms. Steeling himself, he rises for a final journey to a safe haven that may not exist.
Struggling against the relentless snowstorm, ice slicing into his face, Tony whispers to his granddaughter not to cry—grandpa’s got her. Memories flood his mind of Kim’s birth; she’s beautiful, just like her mother. He stumbles onward, pushed to his limits, and as he begins to fall, a hand grips him from behind, echoing Peter’s strength long ago. Simon catches him, draping Tony’s arm over his shoulder and securing the baby as they embark on their final journey. Visions of joy fill Tony’s thoughts, juxtaposed against the frozen, lifeless landscape: Kim taking her first steps, speaking her first words, their cherished moments at the park, and her reluctance to go to school. He imagines the moments that could have been: giving her the ultra-rare cheeseburger sticker for her 11th birthday, guiding her through middle school and high school, celebrating her graduation from university, and rejoicing in her first real job, before walking her down the aisle on her wedding day. His dreams of happiness burn away as they arrive at the gate of their destination—a large-scale Costa Rican sanctuary. The guards coldly announce that the facility is at full capacity, ordering them to leave. Desperate, Simon pleads for the baby, promising the guards they will leave if they just let the child in. The guards demand to see the baby. As Simon presents the child, a glimpse of innocence amid the devastation, the gate creaks open, and Tony collapses, his fate left shrouded in uncertainty.
Epilogue
1994, ten years after the onset of mutually assured destruction, a girl skips a lecture on nuclear winter to call her grandpa in a dimly lit underground facility. When he arrives, she confesses that she was kicked out of class for drawing. "You are just like her," the old man replies.
"Come on, let's grab some cheeseburgers your dad would never letcha have!" he says, holding out his hand as he recalls his daughter's last words: “Dad, I love you…and I forgive you. Take care of her, her name is…”
“Let’s go,” Tony says, as the girl grabs his hand, lighting up his world with the most precious smile.
"Ellie."
Characters[]
Episodes[]
- Ep.1 - Prologue - More Than A Feeling
- Ep.2 - Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Ep.3 - A Day in the Life
- Ep.4 - Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
- Ep.5 - I Will Wait for You
- Ep.6 - With Or Without You
- Ep.7 - Jump
- Ep.8 - Somebody To Love
- Ep.9 - Walk Away
- Ep.10 - Subterranean Homesick Blues
- Ep.11 - Living In The Past
- Ep.12 - Small Town
- Ep.13 - You'll Accomp'ny Me
- Ep.14 - Carry on Wayward Son
- Ep.15 - Carry on Wayward Son Part II
- Ep.16 - Take the Long Way Home
- Ep.17 - Take the Long Way Home Part II
- Ep.18 - In My Life
- Ep.19 - I Remember
- Ep.20 - I Remember Part II
- Ep.21 - I Remember Part III
- Ep.22 - I Remember Part IV
- Ep.23 - Hello, Goodbye
- Ep.24 - Hello Goodbye Part II
- Ep.25 - Well All Right
- Ep.26 - Pain is So Close to Pleasure
- Ep.27 - Six Years Gone
- Ep.28 - Candle in the Wind
- Ep.29 - My City Was Gone
- Ep.30 - The End
- Ep.31 - Heartbreaker
- Ep.32 - You Really Got Me
- Ep.33 - Tangled Up in Blue
- Ep.34 - Tangled Up in Blue Part II
- Ep.35 - Carry On
- Ep.36 - Can't Get It Out of My Head
- Ep.37 - We Gotta Get Out of This Place
- Ep.38 - Psychopath
- Ep.39 - If You Wanna Get to Heaven
- Ep.40 - Over the Hills and Far Away
- Ep.41 - Against the Wind
- Ep.42 - You're My Best Friend Part 1
- Ep.43 - You're My Best Friend Part 2
- Ep.44 - You're My Best Friend Part 3
- Ep.45 - You're My Best Friend Part 4
- Ep.46 - You're My Best Friend Part 5
- Ep.47 - You're My Best Friend Part 6
- Ep.48 - You're My Best Friend Part 7
- Ep.49 - You're My Best Friend Part 8
- Ep.50 - You're My Best Friend Part 9
- Ep.51 - You're My Best Friend Part 10
- Ep.52 - You're My Best Friend Part 11
- Ep.53 - You're My Best Friend Part 12
- Ep.54 - You're My Best Friend Part 13
- Ep.55 - Ellie
- Ep.56 - Ellie Part 2
- Ep.57 - Act II
- Ep.58 - Sweet Child O' Mine
- Ep.59 - Atomic Dog
- Ep.60 - Family Affair
- Ep.61 - Family Affair Part 2 (listed as "The Final Countdown" in the title card)
- Ep.62 - Paradise City
- Ep.63 - Time is Running Out
- Ep.64 - Falling
- Ep.65 - All My Love
- Ep.66 - Stop Crying Your Heart Out
- Ep.67 - I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing (Series Finale)