A world-weary detective is hired to investigate the murder of a West Point cadet. Stymied by the cadets' code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case - a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.
When people in Littlehampton start receiving scandalous and obscene letters, suspicion immediately falls on fiery Rose, who might lose the custody of her daughter. A group of women set out to solve the mystery.