Auggie is starting his first year at Wroxall College. It's a punishment, and he's determined to make his way through the year, prove himself, and earn the right to go back home.

Theo is a grad student recovering from a terrible car accident. He's lost his husband and their daughter, and he's trying to figure out how to keep going.

When both are tangled up in a murder, though, they have to set their personal problems aside and work together—first to clear their names, and then, when the killer turns his attention on them, to survive.

But what might really kill them is finishing a seminar together on King Lear.