Based on the work of renowned historian Simon Schama, Murder at Harvard blends film-noir storytelling with contemporary documentary to recount a notorious 19th-century American crime. Faced with incomplete historical information, Schama adopts the persona of a detective traveling through time, creatively imagining key scenes and interactions. As Schama explains, his aim wasn't necessarily to find strict historical accuracy, but to uncover a deeper, more evocative truth—to bring the characters back to life.