New York City, 1971. Two years after their collaboration chronicled in The Philosophical Detective, Nick Martin again falls under the spell of the blind poet and fabulist who calls himself Jorge Luis Borges. Together they must solve a baffling series of murders, find the legendary Ring of Solomon, and rescue the raven that inspired Edgar Allan Poe. Once again Nick plays the parts of Watson, Sancho Panza, Dante and Stephen Daedalus as he braves Borges's conundrums and labyrinths in a quest for himself and the love of his life.