英俊帅气的凯尔（Aaron Dean Eisenberg 饰）在某清洁公司打工期间，意外从一户人家收来一口制作精美、古色古香的棺材。令他和好友萨顿（J. Walter Holland 饰）感到惊奇的是，棺材内部竟然安装了宛如钟表一般精密的仪器。通过钥匙上的名字，凯尔查到棺材最早属于15世纪一个被称为邪恶版达芬奇的酷刑装置发明家特里斯腾。特里斯腾发明了这个名为“幽灵诞生机”的装置，可以让人在无痛苦的情况下体验死亡的感觉。在此之后，凯尔找来女友朱莉（Liz Fenning 饰）和同学普莱特（Jared Grey 饰）。他们相继躺入棺材中，只为体验那灵魂出窍的神秘感觉。 在这一过程中，他们似乎发现更多关于这口棺材的秘密，却不知自己正被拖向万劫不复的黑暗深渊……
Lewis returns to Oxford after several years absence and is reluctantly assigned by his new boss, DCS Innocent, to the murder of an Oxford mathematics student who was shot while participating in a sleep study. The key-code used to access the sleep lab was assigned to a fellow maths student, Daniel Griffin, but Daniel's math tutor has provided him with an alibi. Daniel is a maladjusted young man who will soon inherit his father's automotive empire. He is disruptive and has no respect for his uncle who now heads the company. The future of the company however rests on an impending deal with Japanese investors who insist that family unity is all important at this time. When two other murder occurs, Lewis must decipher a cryptic clue left in an old case file by his former boss, Chief Inspector Morse.
