Tashi is a body catcher, paid by inhabitants of the poor districts of Ossiri City to dispose of inconvenient corpses. The fewer questions he asks about them, the happier everyone tends to be. It's not an easy life, and the money isn't great, but it's better than the life he led when he was first thrown out on the streets with nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

Then a colleague asks him to help with the bodies of a woman and babe who died in the birthing. Not just any woman and child, either, but a royal princess and her secret bastard. Though he wants no part of the mess, Tashi agrees, and finds himself facing his past and enough trouble to kill him and anyone stupid enough to help him.