A consultant pathologist in the Dublin city morgue in the 1950s, Quirke is a powerful character more at ease among the cold silent slabs than the company of his fellow men. But in truth, his profession provides his greatest pleasure: inquisitive by nature, he is fascinated with unlocking the secret to these cadavers' deaths. After a body vanishes from his mortuary one night Quirke's curiosity is piqued by the lengths his brother is prepared to go to, to cover up the cause of one young woman's death in childbirth. As Quirke turns accidental detective, he delves deep into the secrets of Dublin.