It's not the first time the local press has made a mistake, but this one has consequences for Dr. Hugh Westlake. An article about an advocate of euthanasia has switched the name of the old quack named Westbrook to "Westlake," which leads to Hugh getting summoned in the middle of an icy winter night for a mercy killing. The poor, fatally ill woman is the matriarch of a new, wealthy family in town. Ethically, all Hugh can do is ease her pain, so he leaves her with some morphine tablets and in the care of her beautiful daughter Hermia, a sight for sore eyes to the widower of eight-years. But, Mrs. Talbot's unexpected death on the following morning- and her will- draw Hugh into the secrets of the odd household, which consists of her much younger husband, an adopted sibling, a flighty nurse, and a couple of mad scientists. And, when another of Hugh's terminally ill patients is found dead from a morphine overdose, he becomes the prime suspect in a case that comes down to the question of mercy- or

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