Bestselling author Lawrence Sanders breaks new ground with a story about a doctor who plays God - with horrifying results. Bingham Foundation field investigator Samuel Todd has been assigned to approve a grant to Dr. Telford Thorndecker, the current head of Crittenden Hall, a senior care facility. Thorndecker's wealthy first wife died in a drowning accident. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist is now married again, and his second wife is a gamine beauty four years younger than his daughter. Commanding and charismatic, Thorndecker is a man in his prime. But as Todd digs deeper into the goings-on at Crittenden Hall, he begins to question the very essence of the man. Is Thorndecker a brilliant scientist on the edge of a monumental breakthrough, or a madman who'll stop at nothing to achieve immortality? Todd must make his own Hobson's choice as he races to stop a conspiracy that could have calamitous consequences for years to come.