Arthur and George grow up worlds apart in late nineteenth-century Britain. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains in hard-working obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. With vivid imagination, Julian Barnes brings this long forgotten case to life, and explores the inner workings of these two very different men.