Alfred Clarendon, a brilliant bacteriologist, knows the only goal in life - service to science. He devotes his days and nights to the development of a universal antitoxin that will allow humanity to get rid of all types of fever once and for all. But how far can he go in pursuit of results? Are his motives so pure? And why is he accompanied everywhere by the creepy servant Surama, who looks like a mummy, and eight silent Tibetans? Californians will find out the answers to these questions when Clarendon is appointed head of the prison hospital in San Francisco... and the truth will be terrifying.