Hart and Moore are grave-robbers who provide cadavers to the medical students of 19th-century Edinburgh. When the supply becomes low and demand still great, the two decide to create their own supply, a plan that proves profitable when they stick to vagrants, prostitutes and drunkards. But when they poison likable Jamie, the townsfolk retaliate. NB: This film was originally written to be about Burke and Hare, but after it was completed, the British censors refused to allow its release on the grounds those names themselves were offensive; thus the entire soundtrack was recut so that new names - Hart and Moore - recorded by the film's actors, were cut into the previously recorded lines, replacing the offending "Burke" or "Hare", sentence by sentence.

A change in a will, a murder and a mysterious letter. The police look to a former cat burglar to aid them in the investigation.