A certain man nicknamed the Merchant carries out the daring kidnappings of members of the British Parliament. To avoid scandal, the British government is forced to pay ransom. Grandison's secret agency is investigating the kidnappings, though so far without much success. But they know that the Merchant is about to commit yet another kidnapping—this time the last one, which will be the most significant of all. What could the spiritualist séances of Madame Blanche Tyler, which she conducts for Lady Grace Rainbird, possibly have to do with all this? Yet it is through Blanche and her dim-witted friend George Lumley that a thread will lead to the kidnappers. Canning's "spy worlds" resonate with the "spy worlds" of le Carré, but Canning is more ruthless to his characters and reader, often leaving them not even a hope for the triumph of "good" over "evil." The intelligence services in his novels are ruthless structures that, as a rule, place their corporate interests above human values.