A helicopter on its way to an oil rig goes down with 16 workers on board. Called in to supervise the post-mortems, Professor Sam Ryan begins to piece together how the crash happened.

A man caught disposing of the body of a notorious gangster is holed up in his office and wants Sam's help to make sure the police don't pin the murder on him. When he is later found dead, Sam tries to find out who is behind the killings.

When a fire breaks out in an art centre in Cambridge, Michael Connor turns to Sam to help, who goes back to Cambridge to investigate the deaths. Twelve bodies are found, but they have trouble identifying some. As they attempt to identify Body 10, it becomes linked to an old murder case.