...again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it... (Matthew 13:45-46)
The story begins when lovely Supuesta Rios discovers that renowned Harvard professor John Hsieh, with whom she is living, has stolen a patent application that teaches the key to everlasting youth. Unwilling to remain with the thief, but afire with the potential of colony plant extracts called 'telomerins,' Supi flees Professor Hsieh, enrolls at the U.C. Davis, and joins the graduate research group of their discoverer, Dr. Allen Cole.
Appreciated for her brains and her cheerful industry, Supi thrives in Cole's group. She soon realizes, however, that his R&D program is disastrously underfunded. With the advantages of more money, more students, and better equipment, Hsieh will make good his theft and beat Cole to a commercial longevity treatment.
Cole needs money, a lot of money, fast. Skilled in the art of skinning sugar daddies, Supi knows where and how to get the money, but she has fallen in love with honest, straightforward Cole. She will lose him if she goes back to her old way of living.
A cast of eclectic characters complicates her problem. As Supi arrives in Davis, Cole's ex-wife Marta also shows up, ostensibly to come back to him, but in truth to spy on the telomerin project for her husband Tucker, a rich old oil baron. Rogue examiners from the U.S. Patent Office, concerned by the effect of a longevity drug on the future of life on earth, arrive to persuade Cole to give up his research, or else to destroy it. Hsieh, that driven man, wants Supi back—or is it merely her inside information on Cole's research progress he wants? Or both? Besides all of which, Supi is out of excuses to fend off the advances of another member of the research group, forceful Charlie Mountain, 'the last of the Modoc warriors.'
And then there is the hit man, the gun fight and the scalping, not to mention the lab fire and the fabulous diamond earrings...
