Even in the age of the genome and sophisticated biotechnology, medical progress still moves at a snail's pace. Seasoned investigators are matured by experience and they accept the virtue of the too-slow scientific process. The young, however have been brought up in a world of instant gratification, and they barrel ahead never looking back to see the havoc in their wake. So it is with Dr. Harmony Lane. In her single-minded obsession to cure her patients, she cuts corners and treats a desperately ill woman with an experimental viral vector provided by an unscrupulous research scientist. While he shares her impatience, he cares nothing for her humanistic sensibilities. She uses a similar vector on her patients with autoimmune diseases. While the vector has remarkable curative properties, it soon becomes clear that it has devastating and lethal side effects. The race is on to cure or at least control the vector before it kills again. The novel proves, once again, that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."