1645. The year Scotland died. "Ring a ring of roses." Dirty white rags dangled from windows, like hanging men left on gallows for the city to witness their shame. The Bubonic Plague is ravaging Edinburgh. Despite the council's best efforts, people are dying. Soon there will be more people buried under Edinburgh than living in it. "A pocketful of posies." When the plague doctor dies from the disease after a week, the council hires student doctor Alex McCrae, promising him one hundred pounds to cure the wretched pest. But a man who makes himself a hero, makes himself enemies. And when the council can't afford to pay McCrae, they hope he'll succumb to the disease. "Ashes, ashes." But the plague isn't the only way to kill a man. And in the city of the dead, it's not just ghosts who return. "We. All. Fall. Down."