When a mysterious woman with strange wounds on her arms and legs was admitted to the hospital, Dr. Smith - a surgeon and expert in the dark sciences - and his friend, Police Inspector Conroy, did not even suspect that they would soon face Evil... Rivers of blood, gigantic toads, mysterious murders in locked rooms and the rising dead - in the fantastic-occult detective story by Herbert Asbury, author of the famous book "Gangs of New York", filmed by Martin Scorsese.