Corky Cunningham is a former U.S. Olympic hockey team hopeful and now works as a journalist at the World in Chicago. As a rookie reporter, she is sent to cover a fire at a building in inner city Chicago. She finds out that the building houses an incinerator used to burn the bodies of dogs that have been used in medical research. Soo after, she is part of the reporting team sent to cover a bombing at the Sears Tower. Later, she is on hand when one of the bombers blows himself up in Grant Park. With the help of a Chicago cop and a seasoned reporter from her paper, the World, Corky learns that terrorists trying to stop a doctor from using embryos to make a genetic medicine are the source of all of the mayhem.