Newly divorced Julia Hamill purchases a house badly in need of repair. While giving the garden a needed facelift Julia discovers bones. Curious about the house and former owner, she digs into the history of the property and is put in touch with one of the relatives who has boxes of letters and papers dating back to the 1800s. The book flashes back to Boston in the 1830s where we meet Norris Marshall and Oliver Wendell Holmes, two of the medical interns. What is most fascinating to learn are the medical practices from the 1800s and how resurrectionists plundered graveyards so the students would have bodies to practice on. Norris assists in the theft at the beginning as a way to pay for medical school. He meets Rose Connelly at the hospital where Rose is caring for her ailing sister who had just given birth. It appears everyone involved with her sister is being murdered by a strange grim reaper with a cape, a reaper who deftly slices up his victims with as much expertise as a surgeon. A fascinating history lesson is woven amid an intriguing mystery plot.