Anne Harriman, the chief pathologist of pharmaceutical giant Bauer-Ritter, works at the public morgue for two weeks every year to keep her license current. One night when examining a body, she recognizes the murdered woman as her best friend, Giselle McKenzie.

As Anne tries to conduct further examination of Giselle's body, she is met with resistance and she has to fight to stay as a part of the investigation. Meanwhile, her work at Bauer-Ritter is at risk of being exploited for all the wrong reasons. Tom, her lover, tries to handle the growing panic at his university in regard to the serial rapist.

Anne learns from upsetting information after sitting in on the police interrogation of Dominic Martin, with whom Giselle had been having an affair. She also discovers that a phone call was made from Giselle's car around the time of her death to trade minister Paul Scanlon. The serial rapist strikes again and a new suspect is put forth.

Anne begins to suspect that Giselle's conspiracy-like theories may have been true as Dominic opposes political independence for the French Pacific nations at the conference. Anne defends MacFarlane at the tribunal hearing and is annoyed with Tom for not doing the same thing. A trap is set for the rapist that may finally catch Giselle's killer.