This play is based on an 1890's story by Oscar Wilde about Lord Arthur Savile's who is engaged to lovely Sybil Merton. Her pet chiromantist Podgers has read Lord Arthur's palm and foretold he would commit a murder. Lord Arthur desires a blissful married life and therefore feels duty bound to get the murder over with first.

Despite help from his butler and the cheerful anarchist Winkelkopf, attempt after attempt fails. Then news comes that Podgers is a charlatan: Lord Arthur is free and the carriage awaits to take him to the wedding rehearsal. Alas, it contains Winkelkopf's newest bomb. Lord Arthur saves himself by tossing it into a horse trough. As the dust settles, two policeman and march the unhappy young man away and another postponement notice has to be sent to The Times.