Delaney Nichols, originally of Kansas but settling happily into her new life as a bookseller in Edinburgh, works at the Cracked Spine in the heart of town. When her new friends, students at the medical school, come to the shop to sell a collection of antique medical books, Delaney knows she's stumbled across a rare and important find indeed. Her boss, Edwin MacAlister, agrees to buy the multi volume set, perhaps even to keep for his own collection.

But not long after the sale, one of Delaney's new friends is found murdered in the alley behind the Cracked Spine, and she wonders if there is some nefarious connection between the origin of these books and the people whose hands they fell into. Delaney takes it upon herself to help bring the murderer to justice. Delaney must race to solve this crime before time runs out and she ends up a victim on the slab herself.