The students of Dr Knox's Private Academy of Anatomy gather to learn from the famous surgeon and inspirational lecturer whose groundbreaking research is changing the face of modern medicine.

However, there are sinister happenings in the background as Knox enlists the help of William MacFarlane and Alfred Fettes to provide him with a regular supply of cadavers ready for dissection. Bodies are stolen from graves and even recovered from the gallows by the menacing John Gray in order to provide Knox with the fresh material he needs.

Fettes wants to learn all he can from Doctor Knox, believing that armed with this knowledge he will be able to make a real difference to the poor and disadvantaged that he sees all around him. So when he meets the sickly Janet Brown and her friend Mary Patterson

begging in the streets, he is only too glad to be able to help them.

However, he is easily distracted from his ultimate goal when he meets, and immediately falls for, Isabella, the beautiful daughter of Doctor Knox. She leads him to believe that if he can buy her a stunning diamond engagement ring, then she will surely marry him.

Fettes has long been suspicious of how John Grey manages to source so many fresh cadavers and his worst fears, that Grey is callously murdering his victims, are confirmed when he unwittingly brings Fettes the body of Mary Patterson for dissection.

MacFarlane, who has his own reasons to loathe and fear Gray, determines that they should take matters into their own hands rather than risk incriminating themselves by involving the law. But when something goes wrong and Gray ends up dead, Fettes is wracked with guilt.