Losing Nelson is a novel of obsession, the story of Charles Cleasby, a man unable to see himself separately from the hero—Lord Horatio Nelson—he mistakenly idolizes. He is, in fact, a Nelson biographer run amok. He is convinced that Nelson, Britain's greatest admiral, who lost his own life defeating Napoleon in the Battle of Trafalgar, is the perfect hero. However, in his research he has come upon an incident of horrifying brutality in Nelson's military career that simply stumps all attempts at glorification.