At the local state university, two feuding departments face off on the battleground of science versus medicine. Each carries its views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right? Then a renowned yet confrontational scholar winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate. And as he probes the recent ideological unrest, he soon comes to realize he's dealing with people who, on this one particular issue anyway, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.