In 1941 a Harvard geneticist, Silas McCally, uncovers the secrets to clone reproduction. He prepares for a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, titling his work The Seedling Papers. The Nazis, in their insatiable quest to enhance the Aryan Race, kidnap McCally, who spends years confined, refusing to relinquish his secrets. Lest he be discovered and give embarrassment to the reich, McCally is given an alias, Duncan Riley, and a new address, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Kyleigh O'Brien gives birth to her son, Michael, late in the summer of 1941. Years later, Michael shares a chance encounter with an old man on a train bound for South Boston. For an aging and often-addled Duncan Riley, the encounter enlivens memories dredged from a past long buried. "Mustard Seed," a shaken Duncan acknowledges the young man.
Thus begins this story of two men, one young and one old. It is a tale of murder and kidnapping and a race to awaken a tortured mind. An alliance is struck to save one life and restore another.
