The thriller, based on the 1977 novel The Black Death by Gwyneth Cravens and John S. Marr[1] and adapted by I. C. Rapoport, stars Kate Jackson and was originally broadcast on CBS.

When Sara Dobbs (Robertson), the teenage daughter of a wealthy New York City family returns home while feeling sick, nobody suspects a thing.

In the hospital, it does not take long before Dr. Nora Hart (Jackson) concludes that Sara has died of the Black Death, which has not occurred in centuries.

Realizing that the disease is extremely contagious, she tries to push the authorities to warn the New York citizens, but the Mayor is reluctant to cause a widespread panic.

Nora and her new colleague Dr. Jake Prescott (Nordling)—whom she becomes romantically involved with—start a race against the clock to locate and treat all the people who might be infected, while trying to prevent the city from panicking.