19th century literature specialist Brendan Doyle goes back in time - in 1810. He wants to hear a lecture by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In London, he will have to face mutilated clowns, an underground organization of beggars, an insane homunculus and magic. Doyle is kidnapped by the Gypsies and fails to make it back to 1983. A philologist transforms into a street conman, teaches new tricks and becomes a swordsman, only to survive in the dark and treacherous world of London's bottom. He challenges poisons, bullets, black magic, beggar killers, imprisonment in mutant-filled dungeons, and time jumps. Doyle will have to meet Lord Byron, the creator of monsters, and a werewolf changing bodies.