Madeleine Karno is a young woman eager to shatter the confines of her provincial French town. Madeleine is set apart by her unusual occupation: assisting her father, Dr. Albert Karno, in his job as a forensic doctor. The year is 1894, and a young girl is found dead. Dr. Karno is called in to determine the cause of her death, but the girl's family forbids the autopsy. Then several other dead bodies are discovered throughout the city, and Madeleine, and her father, must solve the mysterious cases.