All his life schoolteacher Frank Sears has carried with him a strange scar given to him by his mother before she committed suicide. The markings lead Frank to a top secret Cold War military project where an unstoppable, malignant organism is unleashed. Unaware that the creature feeds on light and energy, and moves with exponential speed, the army prepares to deploy its most sinister of all weapons - a nuclear bomb. Facing certain global catastrophe, Frank discovers his father had a diabolical connection to the creature's origin. With a ticking nuclear clock, Frank, along with the help of a hazmat specialist Carrie Freeborn, must confront the grim reality that only he is capable of stopping this living hell.