Afraid for his life, David Pine, long-time reporter with the Los Angeles Daily, drops a thumb drive in the snail mail for friend and colleague, TV news correspondent Beatrice Middleton.
Three hours later Pine is found murdered.
At the same time Bea, with partner photographer Lucy Vega, cover the developing story of a military vet shot by police for throwing cement blocks off a freeway overpass killing a young driver and injuring others. The man was supposedly off his meds. His parents swear it wasn't true. No one believes them.
Later that day, one of Bea and Lucy's rookie staff members flees a story meeting mid-discussion, tearfully confessing a problem with her antidepressants. Was she going crazy or was there something wrong with the prescription?
When Bea receives Pine's files, she discovers information about a master plan to manufacture generic drugs with dangerously low levels of active ingredients imported from Asia.
The center of this sick scheme is a former L.A. County District Attorney now running for the U.S. Senate seat in California. Lucy and Bea have no doubt he'd go to any extreme to protect himself and his cabal, including putting his own psychologically vulnerable daughter in mortal danger.
Bea Middleton, Lucy Vega, Detective Pete Anthony and TV news rookies, go undercover to stop Doyle and his squad of international thugs from manufacturing and distributing empty medicines before more people suffer and die.