Mace Perry was a cop and then a detective working narcotics...until she was kidnapped, and set up by her abductors to look like a criminal herself. She lost her job, her house, and finally her liberty. She served her time in a West Virginia prison, and began the long struggle to turn her life around. She finds a job with Joshua Altman, a reclusive scientist who wants her to help with his research and also act as his de facto bodyguard. As she starts to learn about the true nature of his work, his need for security quickly becomes clear. Altman has made a discovery that portends nothing less than an almost certain apocalypse for the civilized world.