When Cobb's friend dies by suicide the police say that it is an open and shut case, but Cobb is far from satisfied. He follows his nose and a few psychic intuitions, and what was a simple suicide turns into a series of devilish crimes. Cobb tears himself away from his university lecturing and follows a very dangerous course to put all the clues together. He ends up asking himself the question "how can a dead man have committed these crimes?" It is a very traumatic time in Cobb's life. Not only does he escape death by a hair's breadth, he finds himself having a passionate but loving relationship with a younger woman