Edinburgh 1745. Deep beneath the rain soaked and wind scoured streets of the city a foul crime committed in the dark of night leaves two men dead in a dank cellar. A bankrupt young nobleman with an addiction to the vices of gambling and loose women stands accused of the horrific double murder and all the evidence seems to point towards his guilt. In desperation his lawyer turns to the one man in Edinburgh who can save him from the hangman's noose. Robert Young of Newbiggin. He is a young man who has earned the reputation amongst the city's legal fraternity for being the one person who can root out the truth by venturing into the capital's criminal underbelly. His investigation leads him from the elegant drawing rooms of Edinburgh's high society to the gaming clubs and brothels of the rich and into the grim hovels of the lowest alehouses in the city. But as more bodies are discovered Robert Young is forced to confront the possibility that his client may actually be guilty