These days, retired professor Donald Aitcheson spends his time doing whatever he pleases – driving through the English countryside, exploring small villages and dipping into whatever used bookstores he can find. On one such outing, he chances upon a collection of Robert Browning's poetry with an inscription that uses lines from 'Porphyria's Lover' to threaten the book's original recipient. Perhaps this note was only a joke made in poor taste; still, something about its tone captivates Aitcheson's otherwise unoccupied mind, and leads him to a remote boarding school to investigate. But when what starts as a harmless game of detective comes too close to a deadly truth, Aitcheson finds himself face-to-face with a killer, and learns that some pages are best left unturned...