On September 3, 1988, Dallas weatherman Ray Davino makes passing reference to Public Access Afterworld during a rambling monologue, right before he puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. On June 12, 2009, David Sawyer and Erin Morrison, two lonely suburban teens, gather in Erin's basement to watch TV's analog-to-digital transition. But Erin witnesses surreal broadcasts from a pirate TV network called Public Access Afterworld, and their lives are changed forever. Seventeen years later, Bethany Peters toils through the night shift at megacorp GlobalVill’s bleak Austin campus. A trans content moderator, she spends her evenings reviewing an endless stream of horrific videos. Then a young streamer begins to crop up in her feed calling out to Public Access Afterworld. But what is Public Access Afterworld?