In Victorian England, Joseph Stapleton, 1st Viscount Barringon, has died unexpectedly, leaving his nineteen-year-old son, Robert, to inherit his title, estate, family business, and a curious collection of ancient and contemporary male erotica. Eager to discover more about his father's carefully hidden passion, Robert retraces his travels to London, Paris, and Rome, discovering, first to his dismay and then to his great relief, that he and his father are attracted to men in the same way. But then Robert goes a step too far and uncovers clues that his father - and one of his prize objets d'art - may have been involved in a grisly murder. Worse, Robert's new domineering lover, Fabrizio, may have been the murderer.