A sixteen-year-old girl's body, beaten, raped, and stabbed to death, is found in an alleyway, and the police begin to get messages from an anonymous letter-writer who goes by the name "the Paper Man."

British Metropolitan Detective John Coffin investigates a spate of murders involving a deranged man who kills and mutilates people, offering each victim as a "gift" to a famous actress from her dead son.

Marriage is proving anything but dull for Commander John Coffin, keeper of the peace in London's Second City. With grande dame of the stage Stella Pinero in his life, Coffin's days lack no drama. When the curtain comes down on opening night in Stella's newly transformed theater, Joe and Josie Macintosh are found stabbed to death in their theater box. A curious note left next to their bodies reveals that Joe and Josie Macintosh have carried out a suicide...