Only the verger hears them and he dismisses the noise as his imagination. Three muffled thuds ring from the partially filled grave of the newly wed girl. An exhumation order is granted. But over the next few days others also hear faint sounds. As she starts work on the story, Kate finds herself caught up in a sinister and macabre cover-up. Reporter Kate Hemingway sneaks into the small suburban churchyard when the coffin is opened, and the scene she witnesses is so horrific she can never forget it. He believes people can exist outside their bodies and that if he can prove it he will provide the answer to the question that has haunted mankind through the ages: is there life after death? Nothing - and no one - is going to stand in the way of his driving ambition . At the centre is a respected anaesthetist who has a secret obsession.