A principal client asks Usher if he will deliver the new sculpture to Portland, Oregon, instead of the normal shipping. Upon arrival the client reveals that he has a distant lineal interest in a strange case in California where a young woman is beaten until brain-dead. However, her near term fetus survives. The medical community is keeping the mother's body alive hoping to save the baby. Usher is asked to look into the well-being of the baby, but high politics and Mexican drug-cartel crime intervene.