At West Point Academy in 1830, a quiet October evening is shattered when a young man is discovered dead, hanging from a gallows. But his body was stolen and then found again with his heart removed. The leaders of the academy ask the retired detective, Augustus Landor, to take care of the investigation and find the perpetrator. Examining the body, Landor finds clues that lead him to believe that he was murdered. Landor then teams up with a young man named Edgar Allan Poe and tries to unravel the mystery surrounding this crime.