Upon retirement, Professor Dean returned to his childhood roots at Salsbury Harbor, Maine on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. His three children appeared well settled although people wondered where they had found the money for such a good living since professors don't make good salaries when active or when retired.

When he died suddenly, the coroner pronounced his death from natural causes. But a young ambitious detective thought otherwise and pursued his hunches in vain until he found a young coroner trainee who gave him ideas about death due to genetic linkages.

Finding courage in such medical keys, the detective discovers Professor Dean's genetic traits which enabled the killer to dispense with the good old prof without suspicion. But with the help of the coroner trainee, the detective solves the death and its cause as well as solves a crime of robbery that involved a plane crash and lots of money laundered from drug running.