After nailing the murderer of her addict mom and proving that her detractors are full of it, seventeen-year-old Faith Flores is back for another kick-ass science mystery. She's proud to be chosen for a summer internship at a research lab in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but once she arrives, complications abound. For one thing, Santa Fe is the birthplace of the father she's never met, and for another, she clashes with a local environmentalist trying to pull the plug on the genetically modified chiles her new boss is engineering. She and violin prodigy, Clem, learn of a new teen drug called liquid gold while discreetly researching the family angle. The chip on Faith's shoulder is still there, but so is her determination to uncover the truth when a girl she meets at a party dies from an overdose of liquid gold.