Bill Metts is a lonely man. A former pediatrician turned county coroner after a traumatic experience with one of his patients he now prefers the solitude of the morgue and the company of his "customers" to that of the living Troubled my mental illness since childhood, Bill's one constant, and extremely bothersome, companion is The Voice in his head. A merciless critic, it delights in reminding Bill of all his past failures and the hopelessness of his future.

Bill's only friends are his brother-in-law Mack Kincaid, a lanky, easy going writer of lurid B-Grade fiction, and his older sister Eve. Aware of his problems, and with the best of intentions, they are constantly introducing him to available female friends but their attempts, more often than not, end in failure, only exacerbating his misery.

And then, contemplating suicide, Bill meets Elsa, a mysterious and strangely beautiful young woman whose mere presence causes anyone near her to go into unexplained fits of fear or rage. Unaffected, Bill attempts to help Elsa only to suddenly find himself involved with the small, private army of one of the richest men in the world, a couple of murderous psychopaths, the State Police and several zombie-like creatures....