Every family has its own secrets. It was precisely this secret that the famous writer from Philadelphia, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe, faced in the summer of 1840, who inherited from his adoptive father a mahogany box with a stack of old letters. What is the connection between the poor actors, the spouses of Henry and Elizabeth Arnold, and the mysterious London Monster - an elusive maniac who terrorized respectable English ladies half a century ago? Are the letters genuine or a clever forgery, and if the latter, then for what purpose was it undertaken? How are the strange attacks on Poe in childhood connected with the unknown who is haunting him now and seems to be aware of the past of the writer’s family much better than himself? Perhaps Mr. Poe will be helped to get answers to all these questions by his friend, the great detective Chevalier Auguste Dupin, whom family business also brought him to London...