Igby and his older brother, Oliver, are are in the process of killing their terminally ill mother. His parents snipe at each other endlessly until his father tries to commit suicide and is sent to a mental hospital. Igby grows into a rebellious youth, gets kicked out of several boarding schools and ends up in a military academy. As Igby gets drawn further into the mind games and hypocrisy of the adult world, his already jaded outlook grows even darker....

Jane Austen's classic tale of the tangled relationships between lovers from different social classes in nineteenth century England is faced with a new challenge: an army of undead zombies.