Both their lives are extremely busy as they constantly try to cope with life and death issues. Plato is currently going through a rough period because one of his favorite patients insists on being allowed to die without medical intervention so that her suffering will end. The empathetic healer finds it extremely difficult to abide by her wishes, just as he has trouble coming to terms with the fact that his beloved pet is terminally ill. The mystery is further complicated when a collection of bones that the school donates to a museum turns up four unaccounted bodies. This leads the police and the Marleys to wonder if there is a link between the dug up body and the extra skeletons.
Matters turn more grisly when a hematologist is found clubbed to death.
The deceased professor's partner is being sued for malpractice. They were working on an experimental drug that is being given to some of Plato's terminally ill patients. As the sleuthing doctors try to connect all the various puzzle pieces to obtain a true picture of the killer, they run the risk of becoming the villain's next victims. Bill Pomidor, a physician himself, writes with compassion and empathy, giving his audience a true and troubling picture into the moral dilemmas confronting physicians. The audience feels a bit more sympathetic to the impersonal practitioner and totally surprised by the villain.