Dr. Zander Parks could not be happier. His small research team, Imagine Labs, in Ontario, Oregon, has just gotten approval from the FDA for their new Leukemia cancer drug: Picadone. But his elation is short-lived. Someone, specifically the eco-terrorist group Gaia's Children, has misappropriated the laboratory's cure: it's now a deadly plague designed to kill most of the world's population.

Now, Dr. Parks; Peter Alvardo, the sheriff of Ontario; and Dr. Abigail "Abby" Gallagher, the head of medicine at St. Alphonsus work desperately to treat and control this new contagion, but they are no match for the rogue virus. If this catastrophe weren't enough, Zander begins to hear a disembodied voice. It tells him to abandon his efforts to create a cure and go south. He regards it as stress and continues with his research. The National Guard and Dr. Latrelle Mack's CDC research team are brought in to bolster the efforts of the tenacious Ontario trio. After an interminable number of nerve-wracking hours, they devise a viable answer to this runaway disease.

But time is running out! The government believed it had contained the virus in the small town of Ontario. They were wrong. Cases are popping up in Portland, Oregon-a city of 2.2 million. And Gaia's Children are not about to let anyone interfere with their apocalyptic plans. If the infection breaks this quarantine, the projections point to a worldwide Armageddon!

Armed with a viable vaccine solution, the President of the United States, the CDC, and the research and medical community worldwide rush to create an antidote before it is too late for humankind. Is this the end? Or is it the beginning of a new world?