Margo Bently is writing her first book, the contents of which could prove very damaging to a certain group of people. She is murdered and brought into the lab as a suspected alcoholic prostitute with cirrhosis but Quince thinks the body is telling him something different about her social standing.

Quince is asked to present a seminar in Bufflo NY by Asten, while he's preparing his notes Asten takes over in the lab. In Quincys absence, Asten signs the body out to a phoney coroner and Quincy begins tracking her down. This leads him to a murdered literary agent in New York a race to autopsy him before he's cremated so he can prove a link.

A rookie cop and his partner are called to a break in at a shop, when they arrive they go into a dark shop and start to search it. The criminal is still inside and when they find him an altercation ensues and ends up with the rookie cop shooting the burglar. After an autopsy Quincy quickly discovers that the story the rookie is telling is not the truth.

With a crusading TV reporter looking into police brutality Monahan wants Quincy to find out exactly what happened and why the rookie is lying before the reports condemn him and ruin his chance of a career in the police.