Dr Jessie Copeland is a gifted and respected neurosurgeon at one of Boston's leading hospitals. Like every doctor, she has taken the Hippocratic Oath and is sworn to do whatever she can to save the lives of those who come to her for treatment. She is also at the forefront of developing a tiny robot that could revolutionise brain surgery forever.
Claude Mallouche is brilliant, secretive, remorseless and without regard for human life - a mercenary willing to bring down a world leader or a jetliner filled with people if the price is right. He is also suffering from a brain tumour that Jessie and the new technique are ideally fitted to treating. But Mallouche is holding both the hospital and the city to ransom. Disaster is just a cut away. If Jessie fails, hundreds of innocent people will die. If she succeeds, Mallouche may disappear once more to continue his deadly work . . .