When a partial meltdown at the Cimarron River Nuclear Power Station involves the small Oklahoma town of Patterson, many of its residents are affected. Plagued by cancers, and strange illnesses, they finally settle into a wary distrust of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. After promising the residents the concrete sarcophagus is safe to live within its shadows, a doctor comes to this small town to re-open an experimental research facility. When the President of the United States shuts down all funding for stem-cell research, Dr. Bill Richmond ignores and secretly continues his nefarious investigation of human paralysis.

Cloning cells and nuclear poisons in the water supply transferred to human hosts goes awry when one of his employees becomes infected, his blood combining with experimental cells of rodents. Murdered in a scuffle, the cells transfer again as one large family becomes a town's worst nightmare. Giant human rats roam the streets and the chaos they create gives a new meaning to stem cell research.

The town's sheriff, Buddy Coleman, isn't an Andy of Mayberry or his deputy, Barney Fife. These men and their citizens take back their town with a hell bent vengeance. Nuclear Regulatory Commission be damned.