When an assassin breaks into Deputy US Marshal Lyman Shore's condo in the middle of the night to kill him, he just wants to know who sent him and why. As he starts peeling away the layers of the onion, he finds himself getting sucked into a black hole as a seventy-year-old conspiracy starts to unfold. He will find himself traveling to France, South America, and the Antarctic, where he will meet a beautiful oceanographer who will pull him out of his self-imposed exile regarding any romantic involvement. Time is running out as new holes are appearing in the ozone layer of the atmosphere, and scientists trying to find out why are mysteriously dying at an alarming rate. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising at an alarming level, cancer rates are soaring, and global warming is accelerating. Can Lyman find out what's going on and stop it before it's too late?