Nicholas Spencer, charismatic head of the medical research company Gen-Stone, involved in the development of an anticancer vaccine, suddenly disappears. His private plane crashes, but his body is not found. Rocking the financial and medical world even more, comes the shocking revelation that Spencer had looted Gen-Stone of huge sums of money - and that his wife, Lynn, is accused of having participated in the scam.

Narrowly escaping death when her mansion is set on fire, Lynn turns to her stepsister, Carley, a columnist for the Wall Street Weekly, to help prove that she was not her husband's accomplice. As Carley proceeds with her investigation, she is confronted by seemingly impenetrable questions: Is Nicholas Spencer dead or in hiding? Was he guilty or set up? And as the facts begin to unfold, she becomes the focus of a dangerous group involved in a sinister and fraudulent scheme.