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.

埃勒里•奎因（Ellery Queen），推理小说史上一个非凡的名字，实指弗雷德里克•丹奈（Frederic Dannay，1905—1982）和曼弗里德•李（Manfred Lee，1905—1971）这对表兄弟作家。他们的创作时间长达半个世纪，作品多达数十部，全球销量约计两亿册；他们曾五获埃德加•爱伦•坡奖；他们的四部“悲剧系列”和九部“国名系列”作品被公认为推理小说史上难以逾越的佳作；他们于1941年创办的《埃勒里•奎因神秘杂志》（EQMM）成为劳伦斯•布洛克、迈克尔•康柰利等推理大家起飞的平台，迄今仍是最专业、最权威的推理文学杂志之一；他们出资设立“密室研讨小组”，定期与约翰•狄克森•卡尔、克雷顿•劳森等推理大师交流、切磋……他们成就的不仅仅是自己，更为成就推理小说的黄金时代书写了浓墨重彩。