Dr. Rory Greene is in a tight spot, namely a lab refrigerator, hiding for her life. Who just stormed the primate facility with a gun, leaving Andy the lab tech shot through the neck, dead in a pool of his own blood?

Her quiet life in Columbus, Indiana is upended as scientist Rory Greene finds herself playing the part of sleuth, searching for one of her company's kidnapped primates as the authorities' disinterest and dragging feet make life unbearable. Absent colleagues and antagonistic bosses aren't helping either.

Rory's research involves animal/human communication. The work is now in the hands of a small group of scientists dedicated to the behavior and techniques of interspecies understanding.

This core of scientists at one time included her late father and one of his associates, Dr. Maggie Porter, a professor at Butler University and Rory's "adopted" intellectual mother. As she struggles to find clues, Rory recruits old and new friends to help, and in the process digs up shocking secrets that threaten to blow up more in her life than her scientific endeavors, endangering those around her–both human and primate.