Dr. Preston McBride's research work on a vaccine, mandated by the government, is stolen out from under him. A bizarre canine illness surfaces. One by one and then by the thousands, beloved pets, trusted guardians and vital work dogs perish. As humanity goes berserk over the looming extinction of "man's best friend." Research plunges him into a world of desperate corporate greed and sinister political machinations, where he uncovers a horrifying truth. McBride watches the people in his own life deteriorate with grief from the depth of a loss they cannot seem to bear. He races to find the cause, and with that, a cure for this plague that has reached Biblical proportions.