Three years ago, brilliant student Steve Brinkley was dismissed in disgrace from M.I.T. and charged with numerous federal crimes for a naive mistake in judgment. It made national news for days. The charges were eventually dropped, but the damage had been done: no other reputable school would touch him. Eventually a small college in southern Illinois gave him a second chance and now he hopes to salvage his reputation by winning an engineering competition. Together, he and three other students create and patent a new manufacturing process which will undoubtedly revolutionize all manufacturing worldwide. But an ownership rights battle erupts. At the height of the controversy, one of the students is brutally murdered and the only suspect appears to be Steve. His only chance is to find the real killer before the authorities find him.