In 1931 scandalous author and adventurer Willie Seabrook is the toast of New York. He agrees to help a desperate young actress who believes she’s the victim of a voodoo curse and hires Continental detective Theodora Opperman. With Jimmy’s help, they discover a plot that threatens three other women and even Jimmy’s speakeasy. At the same time, Jimmy has to deal with a murderous thug, and Connie Nix is making her way from Napa, California, to the Pennyweight mansion.
Two years later, Willie comes back to the city, now a strung-out alcoholic, and the original threat has returned, too. Mrs. Opperman, Willie, Jimmy and Connie are invited to Couffignal House on the North Shore of Long Island. Jimmy knows it’s a trap but it’s one he has to walk into, and it ends just as violently as he expects.
