Danielle Carmody is ageing seven times faster than normal. Her mother Sarah, a research scientist, has been desperately searching all her daughter's life for the therapy that will halt the process. But time is running out. At fifteen, Danielle is already an old woman. Then Sarah hears word of a forty-nine-year-old murderer, now in gaol, who has the body of a twenty-one-year-old. And her colleague has stolen a sample of his DNA.