Biochemist Emma Caldridge comes to a remote tropical island in the Caribbean in search of minerals believed to reverse the aging process. What she finds instead are the bloody remnants of a bizarre religious ritual. And here, where the local people speak in whispers about sea monsters, ancient voodoo curses, and rampaging evil, she discovers something far more real...and more terrifying. One by one the island's innocent inhabitants are descending into a paralyzing sleep of the dead --- victims of a long-dormant, terrifying and incurable pandemic that could once again wreak unimaginable havoc if it escapes from the island to spread like wildfire across the globe.

Trapped by a global quarantine, Emma must break through the fear and superstition to get to the truth, and stop the real evil, before she herself succumbs to the death sleep... along with millions of others. Because the evil here has an all-too-human face....