Society discovers the vital role of death to humanity when people mysteriously cease to die despite what should be fatal injuries and sicknesses. The phenomenon is first noticed when a convicted child killer (Bill Pullman) survives his own execution, and is quickly followed by a massive population boom. CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) hurries to investigate a shadowy British institution named Torchwood that may hold the answers to the sudden disappearance of death.