Dr. Phoebe Moon is determined to make changes in her life when she leaves her academic job on the east coast to take a leadership position in a southern California research institute. On her first day at work, a doctoral student is found murdered in his apartment.Adding to the mystery is the substantial evidence he had been surveilling all of the faculty in his department. She calls in a family friend to check her physical space and they find hidden cameras and hacked computers throughout the building.
Knowing she needs specialized skills, she hires the owner of a cyber-security firm, Louie Dawes, to help untangle the technical issues. They find a rotten core of senior professors in the leadership of the institute; a leadership that allows sexual harassment of students and a toxic work environment for women and minorities. Their adversary appears to have almost limitless resources and remains hidden behind a shield of willing conspirators.
Phoebe is in the middle of academic chaos and the harder she tries to solve the murder, the more dangerous the personal threats are against her. As she pushes harder, the murders start to stack up and her suspect lists gets shorter as they are killed off. What could have enough value that students and faculty are killed to protect it?