[1] The evening before he is due to be released on parole after serving a decade for an unspecified crime, Oliver Marks is approached by Detective Colborne, the lead investigator on his case.
In 1997, Oliver is in his fourth and final year at the prestigious Dellecher Classical Conservatory, where he resides with his six classmates in a small dormitory called the Castle.
After the show, the students throw a party during which a drunk and jealous Richard ends up attacking James, nearly drowning him in the lake where the play was staged.
In the coming weeks, Richard grows more violent and begins to attack his fellow students, including his girlfriend Meredith, James, and Oliver, onstage during Caesar.
The students are briefly questioned by the police, led by Detective Colborne, and Richard's death is ruled a drunken accident.
Oliver returns home for Thanksgiving and learns his parents will not be paying for his final semester, though the school agrees to let him work part-time as a custodian to alleviate his tuition expenses.
After the students return from break, they prepare to perform scenes from Romeo and Juliet, another tradition, at the Christmas masquerade ball.
Afterward, Oliver discovers a bloodstained piece of fabric in the fireplace and hides it among some discarded sets in the Fine Arts Building.
Wren begins to suffer fainting spells, James breaks Oliver's nose during combat practice, and Alexander overdoses on drugs but survives.
Before Colborne can make an arrest, Oliver confesses to Richard's murder, using a slightly tweaked version of James' story.
As his fingerprints are on both the shirt scrap and the boat hook, he is arrested and put on trial, though Colborne does not believe him to be the real killer.
For years, Thaisa lives hidden away from the rest of society as a priestess, believing her husband to have died in the storm until the goddess Diana helps them reunite.
In September 2022, it was announced that Sex Education producer Eleven Film was co-developing a series adaptation of If We Were Villains with Canadian production company Blink49 Studios.