"Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naive but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery in the age of New Enlightenment, the city's university offers everything James desires--except the chance to work on a human cadaver. For that, he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon's Square, at a cost he cannot afford....