Detective Paul Young had a problem. He had opposed bringing Van Eng into the Bureau without going through regular channels. He knew that, had she gone through those channels, she would never have qualified as a detective because they would never send a deaf or hearing-impaired person out in a squad car with another officer as a partner. He considered himself sympathetic to Van's situation as a human being, but he would not be the one to risk the lives of fellow officers because he felt sorry for Van. She didn't belong there. The problem was that Van was proving Detective Young wrong—at every turn. Now, in a direct affront to his authority, Detective Van Eng reopened the case on UCLA medical student Marley Dakota and stumbled into what may turn out to be a multiple homicide and possibly more. Detective Young's problem was that every time he challenged Van, she rose to the challenge and exceeded it; she seemed to be utterly fearless and he could not understand it.

A UCLA medical student dies in what appears to be a laboratory accident. The Bureau closes the case when the University asserts that the death was caused by an allergic reaction to a substance in the school's laboratory. Detective Eng reopens the case against the direction of one of her superiors and uncovers a wide ranging conspiracy that takes the reader from Los Angeles to the Silicon Valley to the Pacific Northwest and even to Tajikistan in Central Asia.