Alicia Thorne and a few others have been given a vaccine that can extend life span by centuries. Why then have so many people had to die for it? As a young doctor walks a desolate hospital hallway, while working a lonely night shift, he realizes that he is being pursued. Cautiously, he writes a plea for help in the in-patient chart of Alicia Thorne. His small note is the key to finding out the horrid secret behind the vaccine and more importantly, how to destroy it. In spite of his efforts, that night the young doctor is murdered in the gross pathology department, while Alicia Thorne is discharged form the hospital and her in-patient chart is carted away to Medical Records to collect dust, until one hundred thirty-two years later. Throughout the story, we catch glimpses of Dr. Holtz’s life—past, present and future. We learn about Mr. Helfrick, a man who knows nothing of his beginnings nor if he will ever have and end. We later realize that he is patient zero and that it is through his cells that the vaccine is born. We learn of a future age-conscious society, far more sophisticated than our present society, yet all too familiar.