It is 1892, and Oscar Wilde, the
playwright, is riding high on a wave of glory after the successful production of LADY WINDEMERE'S
FAN. He and some friends have formed the Socrates Club to overcome their Sunday boredom. There is a dinner for the seven of them, where each member may, and often does, bring a guest. After dinner, for their amusement, they sometimes play mind games. On this occasion, Oscar wilde chooses a game where each person is to write down the name of the person whom he'd most like to murder, and they are all to guess who put in which name. The game gets everyone terribly upset -- a few confess their choices and everyone leaves rather quickly. Then the horrible consequences begin to manifest. The deaths that were desired begin to take place -- and in order, as they were randomly pulled from the hat at the dinner party. Oscar (and his friends) must work quickly to find out what the real answer is before he and Mrs. Wilde themselves become victims. The plot is ingenious, the conclusion most surprising, and the characterizations extraordinary. There is wit and
wisdom aplenty, and Oscar Wilde is portrayed as being ever as good a detective as Sherlock Holmes, leading one to wonder if that character, in stories penned by the
playwright's friend,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, had, in many ways, a realistic counterpart.