Meg Altman and her daughter Sarah moved into a newly purchased home, previously owned by a millionaire. A good house in a good neighborhood, it would seem the perfect place to live. Among other things, the house is equipped with a special room in which to hide if thieves get into the house. Once the steel door a few centimeters thick is closed, it becomes impossible to get into the room. Of course, it didn't take long for the villains to show up.

The year is 1902. Unjustly accused of murdering the husband of his mistress, the English peer Louis Mazzini, Duke of Shelfont, sits in prison and writes frank memoirs....

Chicago, 1968. Caught stealing a car with a fake FBI ID, criminal William O'Neil agrees to a deal with the feds. He infiltrates a branch of the radical Black Panthers organization and gains the trust of its leader Fred Hampton just as he begins to unite local ethnic organizations into the Rainbow Coalition.

Bill Crashank - psychologist - criminalist - gets into a terrible car accident, miraculously survives, but loses his arm. As a result of a complicated operation, surgeons reattach another man's arm.

But soon the hand begins to live a life of its own, rebelling against Bill's wife and children. Driven to despair, Bill tries to find out who the owner of the hand was, but the terrible discovery throws him into a world of unimaginable nightmare.