In 1969 Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson particapate in a drug experiment run by a vieled goverment agency known as The Shop. One year later they marry. Two years after that their little girl Charlie, sets her teddy bear on fire........ by looking at it.

Now that Charlie is eight, she doesn't start fires anymore. Her parents taught her to control her pyrokinesis, the ability to set anything aflame. But The Shop knows about and wants this pigtailed "ultimate weapon". Shop agents set out to hunt down Charlie and her father in a ruthless and terrifying chase that ranges from the streets of New York to the backwoods of Vermont.

Once they get her they plan to use Charlie's capacity for love to force her into developing a power as horrifylingy destructiveas it is seductive. What they don't take in to account is that even a child can know the pleasure of the whip hand and satisfaction of revenge.