Jack Kornberg, a retired pathologist, was encouraged by his wife Amy to volunteer to work at the cash strapped police department in Vista Verde, California. He reluctantly agreed and with trepidation took on the job as fill-in secretary for police Lieutenant Dominic Polito, the head of the department's homicide division. At first, Jack was bored and unsure if he could last a week answering the telephone for the volatile lieutenant. However, when a young, female pacemaker technician was found murdered in the parking lot of St. Francis Hospital, Jack, by chance, became the lead coroner in the investigation of her death. Working with Polito to solve the crime he became deeply involved in his new duties. Their investigation leads to the discovery of a grotesque plan to harvest medical devices from dead patients.