The discovery of a gifted scientist falls into the wrong hands, bringing what at first appears to be a lifesaving miracle, but ultimately the untimely death of his closest friend.

Dr. Arthur Zeller is the doormat of the anthropology department, a mild-mannered professor who is the butt of his colleague's jokes and who never gets the respect he deserves. After the department head, Prof. Martin Stansfield passes over his cutting-edge research into evolutionary psychology and funds the project of his rival, Dr. James Feind, Zeller takes matters into his own hands.

When a transport ship crashed and wiped out the colony on Venus, Capt. Miles Davidow (C. Thomas Howell) was the sole survivor. But, after he's rescued by a team that includes his fiancee, Kate Girard (Amanda Tapping) and Scott Perkins (Jeffrey Jones), it soon becomes clear that Davidow did not escape unscathed. Removed from the high radiation atmosphere of Venus, his body is reacting to the Earth's air like that of a chemotherapy patient. When doctors give him the radiation his body seems to crave, strange things start to happen. Davidow's body begins to spawn duplicate parts - a hand, a torso and more from wounds that miraculously heal. In spite of this, Miles and Kate get married while he's still in isolation, but his time on Venus and the strange creatures he encountered there have had a profound change on Miles.

Since Dr. Martin Nodel is the most brilliant geneticist in the world, the students and staff at the university are willing to put up with a few eccentricities -- unlike his son Paul, who gets impatient with his father's behavior. However, Dr. Nodel's behavior goes beyond eccentric after he unveils his research into introns, mysterious genetic material which he believes hold the code for future evolution. After a successful animal test, Nodel secretly tries the formula on himself, with amazing and disturbing results. As his intelligence begins to grow, so do scales on his hands, strange markings on his body, and a mysterious hole in his back. And he seems to be getting instinctive messages telling him to bring 'subjects' to a remote wilderness location. When he arrives there, accompanied by six students including Paul and his girlfriend, he finds a group of heavily armed soldiers and the key to unlocking a mystery that goes far beyond human science.

When Matthew Logan gets out of prison after serving time for spousal abuse, his first stop is a gun show. He buys a strange handgun from a mysterious stranger and uses it to shoot his wife. The gun attaches itself to Logan's hand and arm, beginning a process which will transform his body.

Musician Jacob Hardy (Nicholas Lea) is strolling with his fiancee Kara Delaney (Stacy Grant) when a meteor explodes over the city. One of the tiny fireballs which rain down seems to chase Jacob, striking him down and penetrating his skull, instantly killing him. Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Michaels (Tom Irwin) conducts the autopsy with the help of his assistant, Ollie Gibb (Don MacKay). He finds an unusual bullet-like projectile lodged in the victim's brain.