Rachel Cummings was settling into her job as the youngest Chairperson ever of the University’s biology department when colleagues from two universities in the area reluctantly presented her with a problem they couldn’t solve.
A dead horse had been found in a grazing area calling attention to a nearby area. The soil and grass had been replaced by unusual looking particles. The owner of the horse and the Head of the project refused to believe that the particles could have caused the horse’s death. Rachel couldn’t let it go. She felt that the horse’s death may have been caused by the particles and had to be looked into .
Rachel recruits Barry Protoc, neuroscientist, to help her get the answers she needs. A personal relationship develops. Rachel and Barry begin working with a nearby hospital Cancer research team. Modern science says what they find can’t exist, but it does exist and it’s deadly, putting them in the middle of a horrible nightmare and making them responsible for an untold number of lives.
Barry begins having blackouts. He feels that the particles have something to do with his blackouts, but Rachel doesn’t see how that could be possible.
A meeting is set up in the early morning at the hospital to decide how to destroy the particles. Rachel can’t wake Barry. He’s rushed to the hospital. A large tumor is found on his brain stem. Saving Barry’s life requires that the tumor be removed as quickly as possible. An operation is scheduled for that afternoon. Rachel knows that even if the operation saves Barry’s life he will be a radically changed person.
Rachel doesn’t want anything to happen to Barry and she knows the particles must be destroyed. She has to prevent the operation, eliminate the tumor and destroy the particles at the same time, and she has to do it without the doctors or Barry being aware of what she’s doing. Her training and science tell her that’s impossible.