The elegant and reclusive Felicity Phillips arrives at the Ice House Gallery to find a macabre sculpture whose scarred face and parched white skin fill her with dread. Visitors are captivated by the realistic appearance of the figure—until the coroner declares it a corpse. A criminal investigation reveals the body cavity contains an electronic device to assist Iranian uranium enrichment. Thomas Sebastian Scott, a computer specialist retired in West Virginia from a secret government agency, is drawn back to service.