David (Christopher Eccleston), a chartered accountant, Juliet (Kerry Fox), a doctor, and Alex (Ewan McGregor), a journalist, are three friends who share a flat in Edinburgh. They need a new flatmate and, after a sequence of interviews, in which unwanted applicants are rejected with calculated cruelty, they take in the mysterious Hugo (Keith Allen). When Hugo suddenly dies of a drug overdose, they discover that he has a very large amount of cash in a suitcase. The three decide to keep the money and to dispose of Hugo's corpse in the titular shallow grave.