American Andrew Taylor arrives as an exchange student at Harrow, the legendary school where England’s elite have been educated for centuries. When the first friend he makes dies suddenly from a severe pulmonary illness—followed by a spate of similar illnesses among the students—Andrew is promptly branded as a Typhoid Mary, and becomes a pariah among his classmates. Then he begins to fear he is losing his mind when the specter of a pale, strange boy begins to visit him at night.
Andrew’s only solace comes from a friendship with Piers Fawkes, a poet who is attempting to revive his declining career with a play about one of Harrow’s most famous students—Lord Byron. Andrew’s physical resemblance to the Romantic poet lands him the lead role.
As Andrew loses himself in the part, learning about the violent and squalid Harrow of Byron’s time, events in the play begin to mirror Andrew’s contemporary experience, tangling him in a centuries-old literary mystery that will take him and a few loyal friends to the edge of darkness.
