Mac has an interest in the auction of a manuscript said to name the killer of an actress murdered after a lurid life. After claiming that he knows the identity of the man who murdered a famous actress 20 years ago, an eccentric man issues invitations to a wide range of suspects, but the answer is not as simple as one might be led to believe.

An elderly captain and his deckhand are missing from a yacht found drifting where several vessels recently disappeared.