Armed men invade the Queen apartment. At their head is Abel Bendigo, brother of one of the world's most powerful men. King Bendigo of Bodigen Arms, an industrial monster whose tentacles embrace the planet. Someone is threatening to kill King, and Ellery must undertake to save his hated life. Virtual prisoners, Ellery and his father Inspector Queen are whisked away in a private plane to mysterious island "somewhere in the Atlantic." In a frightening atmosphere of concentration camp, industrial slavery, and brute militarism, Ellery comes to grips with a baffling murderer who calmly announces not only the exact date of the assassination, but the exact hour and minute as well. He finds himself matching wits with the fascinating American-born King, handsome, cynical, an absolute monarch; with King's disturbing wife, Karla, from a European royal family; Abel, King's Prime Minister, of acute intelligence; and Judah, the saturnine little third brother with an inexhaustible thirst for expensive cognac.

埃勒裏•奎因（Ellery Queen），推理小說史上一個非凡的名字，實指弗雷德裏剋•丹奈（Frederic Dannay，1905—1982）和曼弗裏德•李（Manfred Lee，1905—1971）這對錶兄弟作傢。他們的創作時間長達半個世紀，作品多達數十部，全球銷量約計兩億冊；他們曾五獲埃德加•愛倫•坡奬；他們的四部“悲劇係列”和九部“國名係列”作品被公認為推理小說史上難以逾越的佳作；他們於1941年創辦的《埃勒裏•奎因神秘雜誌》（EQMM）成為勞倫斯•布洛剋、邁剋爾•康柰利等推理大傢起飛的平颱，迄今仍是最專業、最權威的推理文學雜誌之一；他們齣資設立“密室研討小組”，定期與約翰•狄剋森•卡爾、剋雷頓•勞森等推理大師交流、切磋……他們成就的不僅僅是自己，更為成就推理小說的黃金時代書寫瞭濃墨重彩。