Burke and Hare

Burke and Hare, immigrants, attempt to sell cheese mould as a patent medicine. When their scheme is uncovered, they flee to an inn owned by Hare's wife, Lucky. There, they confront the consequences of their deception and the looming possibility of turning to cadaver dealing for money.

Hare learns from Fergus that Dr Knox pays for cadavers, especially with rising demand. Burke and Hare decide to supply Knox with a corpse. They break the spine to fit it into a barrel and plan to smuggle it into the city for dissection.

They present the now mangled corpse to Knox, who negotiates payment for each dissection. Knox agrees to pay a good sum for every body. Burke and Hare begin their grim arrangement to supply more corpses.

Burke and Hare attempt grave-digging to procure more cadavers, but unearth a long-dead body instead. They are chased out of the cemetery by militia, and Burke is shot in the rear during the pursuit.

Back at the inn, Lucky is drunk and oblivious to the danger, hosting a home-cooked meal. She says she knows what they have been up to and insists on taking a share, demanding a pound per corpse as a tax between husband and wife.

McTavish and Fergus kidnap Burke and capture Hare, threatening to kill them unless they surrender half the money. Forced to comply, Burke and Hare are dumped on the road as they trek back toward the inn.

With their backs to the wall, Burke and Hare plot a string of murders to recoup their losses. McTavish and Fergus tighten the extortion, pressing them to continue the grisly business.

Edinburgh residents and Captain Tom McLintock grow suspicious of the rising death toll. Missing posters appear, and the police start to close in on the perpetrators.

McTavish captures Hare again and extorts the remainder of the money. Soon after, McTavish surfaces as Knox's next dissection cadaver, and McLintock recognizes his body among Knox's photographs.

McLintock arrests Burke and Ginny, and Hare and Lucky, while the couples are in the act. The crimes are brought to light, and the case threatens to tarnish the city's medical institutions.

In prison, Burke shows remorse, but Hare urges silence to protect the others from hanging. The authorities try to keep the scandal out of the papers, and Knox's anatomical photographs are destroyed as part of a deal.

McLintock offers a deal: anyone who confesses will free the others. Burke agrees to confess so Ginny can go free. His last words on the gallows declare that he did it for love.

The film's credits recount the fates of the remaining characters, ending with Burke's skeleton displayed at Edinburgh's Anatomical Museum.