The Comte de Saint-Germain has come into possession of a copy of The Mad Trist, the book from which Edgar Allan Poe and Roderick Usher read aloud before the collapse recorded in "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Comte wants to make a present of it to detective Auguste Dupin, but Dupin's faithful companion is en route for England, and cannot deliver the volume immediately.

In any case, he is certain that his friend, Richard Carstairs, will be just as interested in reading the supposedly accursed volume as he is. Despite the warnings issued by a rival bibliophile, Stephen Coningsby, Dupin's friend is unintimidated by the prospect of reading a forbidden book. After all, Dupin has a whole shelf full of them, and has never sustained any harm therefrom...!

A classic tale of horror.