A fast-paced television drama set within the fascinating environment of a State Coroner's office complex. Each day a team of highly trained professionals deals with the questions of death, murders, accidents, suicides, fires, drownings and even the odd natural cause. We see their battles with grieving families, slow or meddling authorities and organised crime, from the initial inquiry through the courtroom appearances and the Coroner's final verdict and recommendations for trial reform. The story begins when Deputy Coroner, Clive Trimble, is beaten to the position of Coroner by a rank outsider, ex-magistrate and former law lecturer, Kate Ferrari.

Trimble is bitterly disappointed and doesn't hide his antagonism towards Kate when her first day on the job calls for brilliant presence of mind and a very strong stomach. The State Coroner's office is populated with a hybrid of professionals - the Pathologist who fears she may never marry, the ambitious Coroner's Clerks, the middle-aged night clerk and the heavy smoking young female day clerk. State Coroner tells the story of those who conduct societies vital and absorbing search into the circumstances of unnecessary death. Who died? How and why did they die? Who contributed and, where possible, how might such a tragedy ever be avoided again?