The detective team of Dr. Alan Twist and Inspector Archibald Hurst receive a tip that the murderer known as the “Suitcase Killer” — who has been leaving dismembered bodies in suitcases in London’s railway stations — resides in Leadenham, a sleepy village twenty miles from the capital. Another resident, a retired major of the Indian Army, claims he can summon an evil genie by rubbing an artifact known as ‘The Tiger’s Head’. He and a doubter stay alone in a room where every door and window are locked from the inside and guarded by a witness; subsequently, the major is found dead and the doubter unconscious from wounds which could not have been self-inflicted. Could the serial killer be an evil genie? Or is it possible that two murderers, each with the apparent ability to vanish at will, inhabit the same small village?