Meet Quirke, a big lumbersome and alienated Irishman in his 40s. Quirke's wife died years ago in childbirth. By profession he is a doctor, specifically a pathologist who dissects the dead of Dublin in the dark quarters of Holy Family Hospital. An autopsy may disclose the physical cause of a death, but an encounter with a cadaver can also bring Quirke face to face with a mystery and the prospect of a crime committed. A welling and persistent curiosity draws Quirke ineluctably to the spoor of suspected skullduggery. His pursuit of a resolution and gnawing need for justice can be dangerous compulsions.
It is the 1950s. Cigarettes and