Forced to yield to powerful political machinations, Dr. Resa Myles loses control of the research she spearheaded for a cancer vaccine. Against her advice, President Harland uses the vaccine as a political tool, and the Russian Federation uses it as a weapon. Now the immunization programs backfire and a deadly syndrome is unleashed on the world, a syndrome made even worse by nuclear war. The president tries to hide his culpability and shifts the blame to the researchers, making Resa enemy number one. With the country under martial law, Resa and other key researches are taken into protective custody in underground shelters and ordered to find an antidote to the syndrome. Resa is determined to regain her freedom and salvage all she can from the chaos the politicians have bred, and not even the president himself can stop her now. Aided by her lover, CIA agent Steve Sheldon, she conspires to thwart President Harland's plan to create a dictatorship, but Harland is equally determined to destroy her and those who helped her. If she loses, the world as she has known it will be gone forever.