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A bright young star on the medical school faculty Jason Pearce worries that hell lose NIH funding as his basic research falters. He signs a contract with a venture capital company that enables him to embark on a study of mice whose memory fails as they age. He discovers that their forgetfulness is due to a defective memory gene; that the loss can be prevented by injecting young mice with the normal memory gene; and that the same type of gene defect increases the risk of Alzheimers Disease. With approval of his medical schools ethics review board he launches a randomized clinical trial to see if injection of a normal human memory gene can prevent Alzheimers Disease. Betsy Matthews a middle-aged African-American develops leukemia a year after she receives the injection. A colleague of Jasons discovers that the injected memory gene triggered Betsys leukemia. Nobody suspects negligence until Janice Polk a young investigative reporter asks a question that others had failed to ask. The answer shatters Jason and his family his medical school and the venture capital company.