When a top nuclear scientist turns homicidal, taking an innocent family hostage at gunpoint, Gideon Crew is called in to talk the man down. But even though Gideon knows the man personally, the standoff ends in an explosion of violence.

When the authorities discover the scientist's body is intensely radioactive, all hell breaks loose. A plume of radiation over New York City leads to a warehouse, where is seems a nuclear bomb was assembled just hours before. Gideon finds himself charged with a desperate assignment: to track down a rogue nuclear device... in just ten days.