Two 19th-century opportunists (Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis) become serial killers so that they can maintain their profitable business supplying cadavers to an anatomist (Tom Wilkinson).

To prevent a world war from breaking out, famous characters from Victorian literature band together to do battle against a cunning villain.

Beowulf is a wanderer who learns about a man-eating creature called Grendel which comes in the night to devour warriors trapped at the Outpost. The Outpost is ruled by Hrothgar. He has a daughter, whose husband may have been murdered by the Outpost’s master of arms