Pilgrim Corporation has leased Choke Canyon to research physicist David Lowell for 99 years. Lowell has built an impressive research laboratory there. When Pilgrim suddenly needs Choke Canyon for toxic waste storage, they resort to violence to force out the renitent Lowell. However, Pilgrim Corportation vastly underestimates Lowell, who is a tenacious, principled, and ingenious man.