An artist's work is vindictively vandalized, and the artist is found murdered in his smoking room. Gold bullion totaling 10,000 pounds mysteriously vanishes from the ill-fated steamship Nicobar as it sinks en route to Plymouth. A clerk disappears from a large London bank along with a rather substantial amount of the company's money. A lunatic Frenchman, discovered beaten and bloody in the street, screams in terror when offered a loaf of bread. These dark occurrences have two things in common: The obvious solutions are not the solutions, and private detective Martin Hewitt is on the case.