Dr. David Hunter is Medical Staff President at Green Valley Memorial Hospital. Facing him is the challenge of keeping his community hospital open as an independent entity in the face of managed care pressures and the encroachment of University Medical Center (UMC), seeking to expand its growing empire. As Chief of Pathology, Dr. Janis Saunders is more frequently called upon to deal with dead men than live ones. Serving on the Medical Executive Committee, she emerges as an unexpected ally in Dr. Hunter's quest to block the hospital's CEO from arranging a merger with UMC. The two doctors, both confirmed singles, develop a comfortable relationship as they try to untangle a deadly web of hospital politics and ruthless ambition. Investigating the sudden deaths of two Trustees, Dr. Hunter also discovers more personal secrets. Not until he can explain the two unusual deaths does David uncover the most important secret of all: love.