Two cases including a severed leg with no sign of the body, and a terribly burned woman in a flat, summon female forensic pathologist Dr George Barnabas to the scene She wants her lover Gus Hathaway, Detective Chief Inspector, to run the investigation, but he is away and his deputy won't let her near the case Only when Gus gets himself into trouble can she at last begin to delve on his behalf Soon she is on the trail of a crime more tortuous and criminals more dangerous than either she or Gus bargained for