Twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones is bright and energetic. But over the past 18 months Cassie has been rushed to Western Pediatric Medical Center with alarming frequency. Each time her pediatrician fails to come up with a diagnosis and finally calls in Dr. Alex Delaware. Instinct tells him that someone is deliberately making Cassie ill, and the prime suspects are the parents. But Alex also realizes that something disturbing is going on in the hospital itself. And presiding over the demoralized doctors and the grim atmosphere is a financial wizard who is also Cassie's grandfather. Then a staff physician is murdered, and Alex rushes to identify the link between the shadowy machinations at Western Peds and the fate of a child before another innocent life is lost.