"Death in the Jungle" is a slapstick romp through C Ward, orchestrated by nurse Jane Corpus. Newly married to Dr. Hubert Corpus, the hospital director and head of oncology, Jane is finally settling into her new life when Hubert's ancient father comes to live with them. Hubert the Elder, as the father is known, is a lecherous womanizer. Each morning, Jane flees from the Elder's bizarre antics to the safety of her gossip-ridden hospital, where bodies are lost, organs are wrongly appropriated, and the morgue is a favorite hangout.
But Hubert and Hubert the Elder have a secret, which Jane discovers when a trunk arrives at her house containing the Elder's belongings. Inside the trunk lies the mystery of Huberta, the long-lost sister of Jane's new husband. Jane begins a mission to find her missing sister-in-law, and so begins a whirlwind adventure of hippopotami, hermaphrodites, and hilarious Huberts.