Plucky evolutionary biologist Dr. Margo Green joins forces with tough Chicago cop Lt. Vincent D'Agosta to unravel the mystery behind the horribly mangled corpses that keep popping up around her museum during an opening night gala for a new exhibit. When they investigate further, they find that there were mysterious deaths on the cargo ship that brought it across the ocean. Sure enough, there's a monster to blame, sprung from a strange artifact of South American origin.