This is a true crime story about corruption in the power of the establishment. Preston tells of Jeremy Thorpe, a former Member of British Parliament. In 1979, Thorpe was indicted for an attempted assassination when he hired a professional murderer to kill his ex, Norman Scott. Scott and Thorpe's relationship was always undisclosed to the public, because not only was homosexuality frowned upon at the time, it was actually illegal.
We learn about Thorpe's personal life. As a young person, he was experimental in the bedroom, and he became involved in a scene. It was in this underground scene that he expressed himself more openly, and he was in gay relationships. This ultimately led him to Norman Scott, but their passionate love was not timeless, and in the aftermath of their affair, Thorpe realized that he had a serious open-ended question: Would Scott ever go public in order to defame him and take his career away?
This question led to paranoia and extreme behavior, and untreated, it ultimately led Thorpe to allegedly hire a hitman to murder Scott so that he would never be able to share their love life with the public. The trial is documented, and also we learn of Thorpe's verdict—he was acquitted. But the story still lingers as a haunting reminder against paranoia, and as a reminder of the history of secrecy and mistreatment that gay people have endured in Western history.
