Six years into the worst drought in history, fresh oranges go for $10 each, and food is scarce. Just when Californians think things can't get worse, their last lifeline, the California Aqueduct, is held hostage, creating more havoc than a Richter 7. Scott Acosta, a plant biologist and the son of a Mexican farm worker, spends twenty hours a day in the most advanced greenhouse in America. Scott, who is deaf and hears with a cochlear implant, has bioengineered a miracle plant that can save California from starvation. He has reversed photosynthesis. That's right. His plants produce water. Brenton Ecco, Scott's former college roommate, is willing to do almost anything to stop Scott. Brenton, the son of the CEO of Ag-Gen, the nation's richest and most successful Agri-business, is the charismatic leader of the Friends of the Environment, an organization dead set against genetically modified Frankenfoods like Scott's miracle plant. When the head of the California Water Board dies mysteriously while golfing on the brown, the Health Department and California Highway Patrol investigate. Doctor Andie Andrews, the Public Health Director, is now back in Scott's life for the first time since his tragic accident. To avoid more deaths, the Aqueduct Directors in Sacramento are faced with a "China Syndrome" decision-allow the potentially deadly water to flow or shut off the entire water supply. Either way, Californians face catastrophe unless Scott and Andie can figure out what's really going on. From the drying marshes of the Sacramento Delta to the wind parched Tehachapi Mountains, California's survival is in the hands of a farm worker's deaf son, an overzealous environmentalist, a troubled highway patrolman, a gluttonous land speculator, and a single mom.