Stacy Richardson is a microbiology graduate student at the University of Southern California, taking her final doctoral exams.  In the middle of her "Quals," Stacy learns that her husband, head of the university's Microbiology Department, has "committed suicide" while on sabbatical at a super-secret bio-weapons lab known as the Devil's Workshop.

Meanwhile, two train-riding hobos, "Lucky" Cunningham and "Hollywood Mike," are traveling near Vanished Lake, Texas, where the newest generation of bio-weapons is secretly being tested.  A bio-accident at Vanishing Lake turns the town into a living hell; one of the many casualties is Hollywood Mike, who, it turns out, is the son of egomaniacal, larger-than-life motion picture producer Buddy Brazil.

An unlikely trio, Stacy Richardson, Lucky Cunningham, and Buddy Brazil work to expose the horrific truth about the Devil's Workshop while trying to stop a gang of white supremacists from "detonating" the frightening new bio-weapon.