Hard-pressed by their financial backers to bring Ultra on line, Edward and his development team short-circuit the testing process and begin experimenting with Ultra on themselves. The tests go unbelievably well, with only one apparent problem: some minor episodes of short-term memory loss. Certainly an acceptable risk for a drug with so much promise.

But Kimberly Stewart, Armstrong's lover, begins to notice other, more disturbing changes in Edward and his co-workers. Changes that will lead her on a terrifying search for the truth -- a search that may cost her her life.

Acceptable Risk is a window into that area of medical research where pure science and noble intentions collide with hard commercial realities -- a perilous convergence where ethics, law and common sense lose their grip.

ROBIN COOK'S ACCEPTABLE RISK--While restoring an old New England home, an ambitious medical researcher discovers a mold which he believes could act as a new and improved mood elevating pain reliever. When he experiments with it on himself and his team, however, he unleashes untold demonic terror from within.