Someone … or something … is stalking the citizens of Miami. First, the chief of the triage morgue at Dade County Hospital is strangled; the skulls of two homeless men are crushed under a highway overpass, followed by drug dealers, frat boys and workers at a local diner brutally bludgeoned. Detectives Issy Ruiz and Andy Molinaro can find no motive, no clues and no links among the victims, just a description of four muscular young men with fixed eyes and stiff gaits as though animated by some otherworldly force. Amidst a growing public panic and an anti-cop smear campaign by the media, with no leads, Molinaro and Ruiz turn to Dr. Robert Merriweather, one of the country's most prominent forensic oral and maxillofacial surgeons and Issy's old boss, for help. With the dogged brilliance that has become his trademark, Merriweather begins investigating possible scientific explanations for this unexplained "zombieism". Along the way, he finds links between the murderers' conditions and his own patient, a Haitian man practiced in the art of voodoo; he also realizes there's a much larger, more nefarious force behind the zombie murders. As Merriweather slowly begins to untangle an unholy alliance of Big Pharma, ex-military and corrupt scientists, he risks losing a dear friend-the woman he loves-and possibly even his own life.