The pathologists investigate when a military helicopter crashes into a refugee detention center. Harry and Nikki actually witnessed the crash and were first on the scene but the case is complex since the center was Ministry of Defense property leased to the Home Office. The team is shocked at the conditions they find in the center and Harry, who has a close friend in the RAF, is shaken when a government Minister attributes the accident to pilot error.

Harry is convinced that the RAF is trying to cover up the real reasons for the crash. This is re-enforced when the dead pilot's father tells him that no one liked or trusted the particular type of helicopter that crashed. When given a chance to perform the post-mortem on the pilot, they find a possible physical cause however. In examining one of the dead refugees, Nikki concludes that he had undergone plastic surgery. She attempts a facial reconstruction to see if they can identify him.

Leo Dalton investigates the death of a young boy whose body is found in the river. He was badly abused and his hands and feet were severed. The child is found to have been HIV positive and the pathologists determine that he may have been the victim of a ritual killing., perhaps as part of an exorcism that went too far. When the skeletal remains of another child are found, Leo believes the police have focused their investigation on the wrong man. Nikki Alexander investigates the apparent suicide of Father Anthony Reid who appears to have jumped from his apartment window on the grounds of a well-known Catholic school. He had colon cancer but those who knew him question that he would take his own life. Harry Cunningham looks into the case of Austin Chambers who is found floating in his swimming pool with an obvious ligature mark on his throat.

When a second person, Vincent Fricks, is found dead with ligature marks around his neck, Nikki and Harry not only find a connection between the two dead men but also with the school where Father Reid committed suicide. They also find another common link between the three. Leo Dalton continues his investigation into a local church that combines Christian with African beliefs and customs. He manages to find physical evidence linking one of the dead boys to the church.

Harry Cunningham investigates when a car accident reveals two bodies inside one coffin. The coffin contained the body of 80-year-old Ethel Mortimer, who was supposed to be there and also that of James Featherton, a high tech sales rep who also had a heavy cocaine habit. Leo Dalton and Nikki Alexander have to deal with the death of a young child who died post-operatively. The pediatric surgeon in the case, Alice Huston, is well known in her field but may be prone to undertaking aggressive surgeries. The pathologists find a connection between the two cases when Featherton's girlfriend is found to be a nurse on Huston's surgical team.

With Claire Kowalski missing and Nikki Alexander unconscious from a blow to the head, Harry and Leo investigate exactly what is going on at the hospital. Harry discovers that a member of Huston's surgical team is not who they claim to be and has actually stolen the identity of someone who died six years before. Blackmail is at the center of it all and it turns out Alice Huston is hiding a secret. However, the killer is identified only by looking to old friendships and the calling in of an old debt.

Nikki Alexander finds herself working on a case from her past. Four years previously, she had been instrumental in getting 17 year-old Anna Holland acquitted of a murder charge. She had been accused of egging on her boyfriend in the murder of a young mother they chose randomly. Now, while under police protection, her body has been found in a burnt car. The autopsy reveals that she had been stabbed but had died from carbon monoxide poisoning and so was burnt alive. Nikki also receives a surprise visit from her estranged father who wants her to perform a second autopsy on a friend who recently died.

Nikki Alexander begins to have serious doubts about her conclusions four years previously when her testimony helped acquit 17-year-old Anna Holland of murder. Anna's mother had withheld information from the police and as Nikki reconstructs the scene of the crime, she realizes that the blood spatter evidence no longer holds up. The police focus on the dead woman's husband but the pathologists find that a series of unsolved murders may have a bearing on the case. Nikki is also annoyed with her father, who has conned Harry Cunningham into completing a second autopsy on his late wife.

Harry Cunningham is asked to review a case in a insurance dispute. The insurance company is refusing to pay out on an policy when the autopsy results show that the woman was intoxicated and likely was responsible for the fall that killed her. Her family insists that that is impossible as she was an abstainer. Nikki Alexander investigates when human remains are found buried in an field. The locals believe the body to be that of Clara Young, who had disappeared 18 months before. The remains are found on the site of a travelers or gypsy caravan site and the police are convinced that George Wood, one of the camp residents is responsible, but Nikki's evidence proves otherwise.

George Wood is released by the police but he is soon found dead in his caravan. Although made to look like a suicide, it is clearly a murder. The case gets even more complicated for Nikki and the authorities when she determines that there are the remains of two victims in the field, not just one. The evidence in the George Wood murder points to someone with connections to the police. Harry Cunningham believes that the dead woman in his insurance case was likely suffering from dementia and looks to prove the cause