A poet finds a body in a toyshop. But when he returns with the police the next morning, the body has disappeared–and so has the toyshop.
A pair of damaged shoes help Philip Trent to solve the mystery of a tycoon's death, but the solution reveals astounding facts even he had not suspected.
What caused the death of the terrified Miss Stoner's sister? Will she die the same way? And what was "the speckled band" to which the sister alluded in her dying breath? Sherlock Holmes is warned not to investigate.