Mark Hartmann, a consultant pathologist, has problems. Married to a barrister, he ought to be living a comfortable life but his excessive gambling is starting to threaten his marriage. Then he has to perform an autopsy on Millicent Sweet, a 22-year-old laboratory assistant who has died of cancer. His findings are odd, for though so young she appears to have suffered from several different, aggressive cancers. But before he can discuss the case with colleagues he is called away to a conference in Scotland, where, drunk and depressed in the evening, he ends up sleeping with one of the sales reps. The consequence of this is blackmail by a pharmaceutical company who threaten to reveal all to Hartmann's wife - unless he falsifies his report on Millicent Sweet's death. And they are not the only people interested in Sweet. Her father, convinced his daughter's death is the result of a laboratory accident, has asked lawyer Helena Flemming to investigate further. Helena's partner, John Eisenmenger, is a forensic pathologist, who soon uncovers the results of Hartmann's original autopsy and subsequent deception...