Jack Collier is a brilliant but troubled Ph.D. candidate at Harvard - the kid from the wrong side of the tracks. But he has an idea that will make medical history: train Strep A bacteria (also known as flesh eating bacteria) to attack tumors rather than healthy flesh. When his mentor, a renowned professor, steals Jack's idea and sets him up to get expelled from Harvard, Jack is devastated and nearly destroyed.

But something has gone wrong with the cure and as Jack travels across the country, he unknowingly leaves a wake of deaths in his tracks. A sympathetic FBI agent wants to find Jack and stop him - before those that want to see his genius silenced find him first.