Did Harold Vickers, the best-selling author of impossible crimes, foresee his own death — or did he possibly even arrange it? When two guests arrive with dinner invitations, Mrs. Vickers is dumbfounded, for her husband has been locked in his study for several days. Yet there are sounds and cooking smells emanating from the room, and when the door is broken down, a dead body resembling her husband is slumped over the fully-laden dinner table with its hands and face in a pan in which the oil is still boiling. The room is sealed and nobody could have escaped without being seen, yet the food is still cooking… What possible connection is there with the death of Vickers’ own father, who also died slumped over the table and promised to avenge his own death? Or the Lonely Hearts killer who recently terrorized London before committing suicide?