The first victim, the sister of a belligerent LAPD officer, is lying in critical condition when a second attack occurs, driving Los Angeles into a media frenzy. While enacting a third assault, the perpetrator accidentally spills alkali on himself, and is dragged into the ER by hostile cops. ER Chief David Spier finds himself the only person willing to treat the attacker, and -- under the critical eye of an antagonistic crew of LAPD officers -- he must force his own staff to uphold the Hippocratic Oath.

Fighting an enraged police force, intense media scrunity, and a mutinous staff, David finds himself the unlikely protector of the deeply disturbed man who disfigured his colleagues. David elects to keep his patient safely under watch rather than releasing him that night to a vengeful police transport crew. But during the night, the assailant makes a daring and ingenious escape.

Now alienated and blamed by a rageful city, David must track down the perpetrator before he strikes again. To do so, he must use his expert powers of diagnosis, and follow a trail of psychological illness that leads back to a dark and twisted history that may implicate David's own past.