The story follows a woman who decides to exact revenge on the man who secretly poisoned her over forty years ago.

It is explained that in the 1950s, Dr. Spriggs was in charge of a medical experiment where pregnant woman were unknowingly given a vitamin cocktail with radioactive iron as part of a secret government study.

Once she gets to Tallahassee, Marylou goes by the pseudonym Nancy Archer from the film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and moves into a house on the edge of Dr. Spriggs' neighborhood.

Deciding she needs a new approach, Marylou befriends Caroline's daughter and Wilson's youngest grandchild, Suzi, and soon gets to know the rest of the family.

Otis, their son, spends most of his time working in the family shed, and Suzi, the seemingly normal child, feels neglected in her own home.

She then tricks Suzi into going to a fundamentalist church run by her neighbor, Buff Coffey, as a way to encourage her to become a devout Christian.

After seeing some of the experiments Otis is conducting in the shed, Marylou decides to report him to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

And Vic's work project is put in jeopardy when he and Marylou catch his employee Gigi tampering with their research findings.

Wilson had his daughter Caroline with his first wife Martha, and was married to a woman named Verna Tommy up until her death three years ago.