1863. Young student, Bernard Pomeroy, flies into a panic when he receives a letter in the early hours of the morning. Leaving a note for a friend with a porter at Corpus Christi College, he rushes for the next train leaving Cambridge. However, shortly after disembarking at his destination, the undergraduate lies dead on the platform.

Summoned by the master of the college, Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming begin to investigate Pomeroy's untimely demise. But it seems that Pomeroy had ruffled many feathers during his short tenure at the University. With academic disputes, sporting rivalry and a clandestine romance in play, the Railway Detective will have to disentangle the many threads of Pomeroy's life in order to answer the truth of his death.