In 18th-century England, amid a massive pox outbreak and the unrest of the Jacobite uprising, a married couple of aristocrats with the singularly fitting surname Savage pursue a better life through duels, decadence, and bloodshed. As polite society reveals itself to be anything but, the film unfolds as a darkly satirical chronicle of class, power, hypocrisy, and the violent self-interest at the heart of nobility.