Niccolo Benedetti takes on the mysterious case of two battling industrialist twins In Harville, Pennsylvania, two brothers are sparring. A common enough occurrence, but these ones happen to be elderly, twins, and industrialist millionaires. The two have feuded for years over all sorts of issues, including a woman they both loved. Now Henry Pembroke has built a bird sanctuary, while his twin brother, Clyde, has decided to breed Manx cats. Henry argues that Clyde's cats will kill his birds, and in an attempt for revenge, he blocks a new air-cleaning device that Clyde wants to produce. After nearly a lifetime of fighting, the brothers call on renowned Italian detective—and larger-than-life artist-philosopher—Niccolo Benedetti, together with private investigator partner Ron Gentry, to help solve their differences. But what begins as a property dispute takes a lethal turn when one of the brothers is kidnapped and a secretary is murdered. In this quiet town, Benedetti, a lifelong student of evil, suddenly has more than enough to study.
