Young Lord Arthur is deliriously happy, just down from Oxford and engaged to be married to the lovely Sybil Merton, when a mysterious palm reader predicts that he will commit a murder. A proper English gentleman, Arthur believes it is his duty to get this killing business over with before he marries.

But his education has not provided him with the required skills, and a hilarious series of mishaps ensues involving, among others, his elderly aunt and his cousin Jane. His valet, his confidante, and an anarchist named Herr Winckelkopf also attempt to aid him in his desperate search for a victim. Will he succeed, or will his wedding be postponed forever?

Based on the Oscar Wilde short story, "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime."