A canister of the deadly Madoba-2 virus has gone missing from a Scottish medical research lab On Christmas Eve, in a howling blizzard Stanley Oxenford, director of a pharmaceutical research company, has everything riding on the drug he is developing to fight the lethal virus Several others are interested in his success his grown children have their eyes on the money he will make Toni Gallo, the lab's security director, has her career resting on the safety of the drug and an ambitious local reporter sniffs a story, even if he has to bend the truth to tell it Their situation takes a turn for the worse when a violent trio of thugs sets out to steal the valuable drug for a client - though what the client has in mind will shock them all