Superintendent Tetsuo Otani is surveying the wreckage caused by a major earthquake - and on his little grandson's first Boys' Day! - when he hears the mournful sounds of a dog howling in a closed building. Further investigation leads him to the offices of Hochmuth-Wasserman... and to the dead body of the export company's chief executive, Richard Liebermann.

Otani suspects murder, and soon he's got dapper Inspector Kimura on the job. In charge of all cases involving gaijin, or foreigners, and famous as a ladies' man, Kimura is naturally drawn to Ilse Fischer, Liebermann's shapely blond secretary.

But why is Fraulein Fischer so interested in bunraku, the mesmerizing Japanese puppets?And how does Otani's old friend Baron Bunsho Maeda fit into the picture?

It takes Otani's solid concentration, Kimura's slightly unprofessional anties - and another death - to solve this charming mystery set in modern Japan.