Just prior to World War II, an appalling event will occur in a Philadelphia prison that will augur the murderous mayhem that is about to befall the civilized world. Thrown into a criminal maelstrom - the discovery of eight bizarrely discolored inmate corpses - is an unschooled county coroner who owes his job to an unscrupulous mayor and a political machine that ensured his election. For Heshel Glass the choice is clear: confirm a fictitious police account of the inmate deaths or follow the dictates of his conscience and initiate an unprecedented "blue-ribbon inquest" to explore the probability that recalcitrant prisoners were cooked alive by sadistic prison guards and heartless administrators.