Wickelgren tells the story of the race to map the human genome.

Prologue: Unfinished business -- Engineers plant a rose -- A rebel lands a cause -- Gene darling -- Crouching TIGR -- Dragon slayer -- The odd couple -- Fame in a germ -- A worm shows the way -- The insider -- Of worms and men -- Affliction in Iceland -- The divorce -- The man from Buffalo -- Seeds of thunder -- The maligned manifesto -- The final plans -- Confronting the government -- The response -- Demonizing a database -- The making of a monster -- Medicine man -- The race -- Hope, hype, and acrimony -- The final stretch -- A genome unveiled -- Jockeying for the prize -- Epilogue.