On exhibit at the marble-pillared Wade Museum of Oriental Art is an enormous black-hooded carriage; and when an inspector opens one of its doors to investigate some strange goings-on, out falls a corpse. But it is not just an ordinary corpse – this one has an elaborately decorated Persian dagger protruding from its chest, fake whiskers on its chin, and a cookbook clutched in its hand. These bizarre components have Dr. Gideon Fell temporarily baffled, but not overwhelmed, as he unravels the clues to reveal the solution to a chillingly horrendous crime.