In the Pacific Ocean off Canada's west coast, Kate Keller's sailboat starts mysteriously disintegrating, leaving her clinging to the mast. This catastrophe was caused by an out of-control cocktail of engineered bacteria to rid the oceans of plastic. It's just the beginning of a looming world spanning disaster threatening shipping and all marine transportation.
 
Meanwhile an idealistic young marine biologist, Esme Berkowicz has recently arrived on pastoral Blenkinsop Island to take her dream job with the laboratory that is engineering the bacteria.
 
In the battle to neutralize this threat, both Kate and Esme discover the laboratory and the American billionaire who started it – and not all is it appears to be!
 
This novel poses the question: can humankind save itself from its own folly?