Inside the grand walls of Edinburgh's nineteenth-century scientific institutions, anatomists began to map the secrets of the human body in order to discover new medical innovations. But to the horror of the local population, a shortage of bodies soon led to the gruesome act of graveyard bodysnatching, a heartless crime that would soon spread like a disease throughout the city. And when stealing cadavers turns to murder, Burke & Hare became two of the most notorious serial killers of their time.

This is the story of those grim events, told for the first time through the eyes of Susan and Helen (Nelly), two women caught up in those horrific matters.