Alexandra (Alex) Blake is a cutting-edge geneticist who has just taken a two-year post at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, DC. Her boss Colonel Jack Wiatt, angry at losing his chance to head the FBI, decides to outfox that agency by pulling Alex away from her work sequencing the 1918 Spanish flu and thrusting her into forensic work.

Alex helps track a serial killer who is targeting women near Navy bases, raping them and tattooing them after he murders them. But when Alex's work expands to include the murder of the FBI head's ex-husband, the suspects include the Senator, a Congressman who is Alex's one chance at a stable romance, and even Wiatt and his staff. Alex puts her own life in jeopardy to bring the case to a surprising conclusion.