On a frosty winter's morning, DI John Rebus and a select group of colleagues are in the company of an expert archaeologist on a tour of Queensbury House, an ex-hospital about to house Her Majesty's parliament in Scotland, when they stumble across a mummified body secreted behind a wall.Later that same day, a tramp jumps off the North Bridge though the glass roof of Waverly Station, a not unusual occurrence, except that "Supertramp" had in his possession a building-society passbook with a balance of over #400,000.
The two cases seem unconnected, until a third death, of a high-profile prospective Member of the Scottish Parliament, is discovered in Queensbury House's disused summer-house. As Rebus and his hand-picked crew dig up secrets 20 years buried, it begins to look as if Scotland's second attempt at devolution, though more successful, will be just as dirty.
