Lourdes is a horticulturist and Cordo is a reporter. They have a happy marriage, so it comes as the greatest shock when Lourdes kills herself. Even more disturbing is how she did it: By cutting out the baby from her stomach, then sailing out into the Pacific and setting herself on fire. No one can make any sense of it. Cordo raises the baby but quickly finds himself overwhelmed with her difficulties. As she grows older, he starts to notice similarities between his daughter and Lourdes, both physical and mental. But these similarities become too great to be mere coincidence. What was Lourdes doing in her lab at the university? The answer is too terrible to be true.