Philip Trent is an artist, a journalist, and an urbane unraveller of highly problematical crimes. He comes to his avocation naturally, for he is a "man of tropically luxuriant mental gifts" who is "clever at getting at the truth about things other people don't understand." In fact, his wide knowledge of arcane bits of information stands him in good stead while pursuing the criminals in this collection of ingenious stories.

Here the unshakable sleuth appears in twelve tales of misadventure, where he is called upon to bring to bear his knowledge of antiques and heraldry, gold, medicine, law, the theater, geography, languages, literature, the book world, the underworld, and the world of wine. The crimes that he investigates range from fraud and embezzlement to criminal assault and murder, yet they all succumb to his adept methods even if the criminal sometimes escapes. Several of the stories may be termed classics.