At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, an American Coast Guard vessel discovers a sunken submarine. It has no national identification and is not registered anywhere. Inside, researchers find evidence of a scientific experiment that could change the fate of the human race. In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she's been dreading for years. There is an outbreak of a deadly disease in Kenya. A team led by Shaw is sent to the scene. And very quickly they realize that this epidemic is unlike anything they have encountered before - it seems that someone bred the virus in a laboratory and deliberately released it into the wild. This time in Berlin, scientist, inventor and entrepreneur Desmond Hughes wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of how he got there or who he is. An employee of an international pharmaceutical company is dead on the floor. The only clue leads Hughes to Peyton Shaw, a woman who seems to know him but refuses to tell him where. While the police search for him, Desmond desperately tries to figure out what happened to him. To his horror, he learns that he may be involved in the outbreak - and may have the only key to stopping it.