Dr. Persephone Smith has a gift of enhanced empathy, or the ability to get inside the heads of criminals too twisted for other psychologists to unravel. When a bioterrorist triggers a pandemic, the government hires Seph and a crack team of scientists to hunt him down. Seph discovers that Dr. William Baine has a genetic secret, one which holds the key to both his coded journal and the cure's formula. His special abilities are a perfect foil to her own. As their psychological link deepens, he taunts her in her pursuit, from the smoky tobacco shops of Bermuda to the underground tunnels of Geneva and France. With the death toll increasing around the world, Seph must use her frightening connection to a monster in order to stop further spread of the pandemic.