Set some 20 years in the future after the devastating Second Civil War, the story revolves around a drifter who unwittingly becomes a national hero. On the run from an evil and oppressive sect known as the Holns, the drifter retreats to the woods of the Northwestern U.S. and assumes the identity of a postal employee when he inadvertantly stumbles upon a wrecked postal vehicle. Although the United States government has long been disbanded, The Postman begins to deliver the mail - providing a sense of hope to the frightened locals who have for too long lived under the Holn's oppressive ways.