When notorious underworld leader Carlo Franconi is gunned down, his Mafioso competitors become prime suspects. Suspicions are fuelled when Franconi's body disappears from the city morgue before it can be autopsied - much to the embarrassment of the authorities, but to the amusement of forensic pathologist Dr Jack Stapleton.
A few days later, the mutilated, unidentifiable body of a "floater" arrives on the autopsy table and Jack himself becomes disturbed by the case. While unidentified bodies routinely make their way to the medical examiner's office, what rouses Jack's curiosity is not so much that body is missing its head, hands and feet - but also its liver.
Aided by his colleague Dr Laurie Montgomery, he identifies the corpse as the missing mobster. But who actually killed Carlo Franconi? And was the killer also responsible for the theft of the corpse and its grisly disfigurement?
