Judge Dee must look into the murder of his predecessor. His job is complicated by the simultaneous disappearance of his chief clerk and the new bride of a wealthy shipowner.
Meanwhile, a tiger is terrorizing the district, the ghost of the murdered magistrate stalks the tribunal, a prostitute has a secret message for Dee, and the body of a murdered monk is discovered in the wrong grave. In the end the judge with his deft powers of deduction, uncovers the one cause for all of these seemingly unrelated events.
Even more disturbing is the murder of the young Second Lady of a prominent local merchant and collector which is witnessed by the Judge himself. Obviously very odd things are going on at the deserted villa at the edge of the River Goddess's overgrown mandrake grove! Throw in an apparently cursed Imperial Treasure and a perverted madman and the Judge has his hands full.
During a Mid-autumn Festival in Chin-hwa Judge Dee is the fellow-guest of a small group of distinguished literati. Alas, he has little time for the criticism of couplets or calligraphy. A student has been murdered; a beautiful poetess is accused of whipping her maidservant to death; and further mysteries seem to lie in the eerie shadows of the Shrine of the Black Fox.