1807, Cambridge, England. A young woman is murdered in a boarding house, and nobody knows what to do about it. The volunteer watchman, who patrols the streets of this placid college town, has no idea how to investigate a serious crime and the private bounty hunters, the girl's family has hired, to catch the killer employ methods that are questionable, at best. What Cambridge needs is a hero, and, in a situation such as this, it's very easy for a gentleman with a romantic disposition to mistake himself for one. 19-year-old Lord Byron, the outlaw poet, is a student at Trinity College, though he can only be described as a "student" in the loosest sense of the word: He rarely attends class and, instead, spends his time day-drinking, making love to faculty wives, and feeding fine cuisine and expensive wine to the bear he keeps as a pet. Catching a killer seems like a fine diversion, however, and Byron decides that solving the crime must take precedence over other, less-urgent matters such as his failing grades and mounting debts.