Inspector Chan has gone to a small disreputable hotel in response to a frantic telephone call from a man known to the Honolulu underworld as Deacon Jessop, but he arrives too late, as when he gets there he finds that Jessop has been murdered, stabbed with a large knife right through his heart. Leaving Sgt Mulligan in charge, Charlie Chan, with his up-and-coming young son Lee Chan, returns to make his report at the office of Police Commissioner Williams...