The crash of Celldesign—a Boston based start-up specializing in the creation of a gene-editing patch—on the eve of its IPO starts with the smallest of actions: Spencer Lloyd, grandson of the company's founder, sends an email questioning the data on which the company is basing its claims.

The email triggers an all-out effort to discredit Spencer, putting the great Arthur Lloyd, the company founder, in direct conflict with his grandson. Things only get worse from there, as the company careens into an all-out panic, and Arthur Lloyd falls further and further into cascading conflicts until he loses his bearings, his company, and ultimately, his family. It seems the business world and the moral universe may not be so far apart after all.

In this intense legal thriller, falsified statistics land a start-up gene-editing company in scandal, ultimately tearing apart the founder's life and ending his legacy.