'It would be grand to help you find poor old Velfrage. Pretty obvious that something has happened to him. I mean - well, he may have been murdered, mayn't he?'

A solicitor charged with the care of the famously cursed Rabethorpe diamond has disappeared, along with the man charged with its care. The prime suspect, Bruce Habershon, wakes up in hospital after suffering quinine-induced delusions and tells a tale full of dwarves, chamber-maids and bodies wrapped in carpets. As he tries to work out the facts from his hazy recollections he is helped and hindered in equal measure by two beautiful, but very different women who seem to be just as involved in the mystery as he is. It is up to Inspector Kyle of Scotland Yard to work out who is telling the truth, and who is plotting to get away with a very clever murder.