Frank Burgoyne,our hero,is catapulted into a mysterious plot when he stumbled across the murder of an unknown woman. She is discovered stabbed and with a strange seal pinned to her. This is the latest in a series of similar killings,all with this same seal upon the victims. Burgoyne later meets (and needless to say falls in love with) a young Russian woman,Vera Seroff. She asks him to do her a great favour (a very great favour I would have said) of taking a sealed box from London to St.Petersburg,and there to hand it to someone who would meet him there. Off he goes,and from there on,his troubles begin firstly being arrested in Russia and being thrown into an underground cell. Much happens before he finally achieves happiness at the end of the book. ( )