[1] Detective Inspector John Rebus has been sent to Tulliallan, the Scottish Police College for 'retraining' as part of a small group of senior officers who have become undisciplined; they are "the Resurrection Men," whose careers need to be resuscitated long enough for them to earn their pensions.

Rebus was sent to Tulliallan for throwing a cup of tea at DCS Gill Templer, but in fact he is working undercover on behalf of the Chief Constable to learn about a possible 1994 theft by a group of the senior officers attending the course.

Back at St Leonard's police station, DS Siobhan Clarke and the other officers are pursuing a murder inquiry, the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer named Marber.

However, he gets an idea about planning a heist of a secret trove of SDEA drugs; by involving the suspected police officers, he hopes to provoke them to reveal their earlier exploit.

While Clarke turns out to be on the wrong track, and Rebus makes a mess of his undercover mission, they work as partners to discover Marber's murderer and his connection with the 1994 theft by the police officers.