The Black Plague--yersinia pestis--now genetically engineered into the new, even more horrifying form known as Pestis 18.

Two canisters of the virus are now in the hands of terrorists.

One had been planted in a large American city. If the terrorists do not receive a $500 million ransom, it will be opened...

The other canister is on an island off the coast of Georgia. Captured at the island's inn are Bruton Farrier, an American Congressman, his girlfriend Sally Strickland, a very important British politician, an aging romance novelist and her secretary, an unhappy teenager and her younger brother, and the staff and owner of the inn.

All are hostages--pawns in a play for supremacy that threatens the entire country with incurable plague.