Fresh off the success of his award-winning senior thesis film The Underdogs, Tisch School of the Arts graduate Jim Mickle returns with this tale of a mysterious virus that causes mass chaos as it sweeps through a terrified Manhattan neighborhood. It's another sweltering summer day in downtown New York City, and as the residents of 51 Mulberry Street lament their crumbling building, higher rent prices, the rising cost of gas, and the ongoing war in Iraq the heat continues to climb as tempers begin to flare. The city is changing, but it's an unseen transformation that won't be noticed until it has evolved into an unstoppable force. A rat has attacked a passenger on the city subway, and just downtown another unsuspecting victim is bitten by a ravenous rodent. As darkness falls over the city, emergency response teams struggle to contain what appears to be a rapidly-spreading virus that is metamorphosing the helpless denizens into a bizarre new species. The streets are quickly filling with these malevolent new creatures, and as a retired boxer named Clutch awaits the return of his daughter from the battlefields of Iraq, the fearless fighter and seven other evicted tenants from 51 Mulberry Street will be forced to bolt the doors, secure the windows, and take one last stand against the mindless, frenzied masses who will stop at nothing to ensure total assimilation.