Includes bibliographical references (p. 552-68) and index.

Pt. I. The "Product" -- Ch. 1. The acid taste of Plutonium -- Ch. 2. The Rad Lab -- Ch. 3. 1942: the Met Lab -- Ch. 4. A tolerable dose -- Ch. 5. The Manhattan project is launched -- Ch. 6. Plutonium rising -- Ch. 7. Planning the experiment -- Ch. 8. Ebb Cade -- Ch. 9. Next in line: Arthur and Albert -- Ch. 10. Trinity site -- Ch. 11. A "small piece of the sun" -- Ch. 12. The quest continues -- Ch. 13. The Rochester production line -- Ch. 14. A misdiagnosed housewife -- Ch. 15. Chicago: upping the dose -- Ch. 16. Postwar Berkeley: the final injections -- Pt. II. Atomic utopia -- Ch. 17. At a Crossroads -- Ch. 18. Comings and goings -- Ch. 19. The AEC and the politics of secrecy -- Ch. 20. Shields Warren: "patriotic enough to lie" -- Ch. 21. "Wrapped in the flag" -- Ch. 22. The Vanderbilt women -- Ch. 23. The Fernald boys -- Pt. III. The proving ground -- Ch. 24. Stalin's Labor Day surprise -- Ch. 25. The first GI guinea pigs -- Ch. 26. "Hot particles" -- Ch. 27. Scorched earth maneuvers -- Ch. 28. Citizen volunteers -- Ch. 29. The cloud samplers -- Ch. 30. Dispatch from ground zero -- Ch. 31. The inverted mushroom -- Ch. 32. Body-snatching patriots -- Pt. IV. "The Buchenwald touch" -- Ch. 33. "Mice or men?" -- Ch. 34. Houston's "paperclip" doctor -- Ch. 35. Cincinnati's battlefield -- Ch. 36. The chambers of Oak Ridge -- Ch. 37. Captive volunteers: prisoners in Oregon and Washington -- Ch. 38. The plutonium experiment: phase two -- Ch. 39. "Tragic deaths full of pity and sorrow" -- Pt. V. The reckoning -- Ch. 40. "We're coming clean" -- Ch. 41. Revelations and tribulations -- Ch. 42. January 1994: the advisory committee on human radiation experiments -- Ch. 43. Harvest of sorrow -- Ch. 44. Closing the book -- Ch. 45. A presidential apology -- Ch. 46. "Never again" -- Ch. 47. Whitewashes, red herrings, and cold cash.