Was Shakespeare a fraud? Who really wrote about cloak-and-dagger political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles hungry for the power of the throne? Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her, intrigue and suspense advance the theory that it was really Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, who penned Shakespeare's plays.

After a meteorite lands in the front yard of their farm, Nathan Gardner and his family find themselves battling a mutant extraterrestrial organism as it infects their minds and bodies, transforming their quiet rural life into a living nightmare.

Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to Sparrow School, a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, targeting a C.I.A. agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.