Elliot Very suspects his PhD committee isn't going to be happy. He's just returned from an agricultural research project in South America and is missing data from one entire sector-Tapiama-and without it he can't meet the study's goals or complete his degree. But all of Elliot's memories of Tapiama are hazy and fill him with a strange sense of dread, so he's unable to offer an explanation or suggest a work-around for the missing information. To his dismay, the committee insists he return to the Amazon.

On the flight to Ecuador, Elliot's unease increases. After he learns the project's senior agricultural officer was killed in an apparent automobile accident, unease turns to outright panic and he soon suffers a breakdown, forcing him to return to the States without obtaining his additional data.

During sessions with a campus therapist, it becomes clear that something traumatic happened at this study site, something so dismaying that Elliot's mind has suppressed it to the subconscious. Will a return to the project cure him of his fears or escalate into an even greater calamity?