Feluda is called to Gosaipur by Jiban Mallick, the son of the localZamindar Shyamlal Mallick to investigate a threat of his father's life. Everyone in the villageknows that father and the son are at loggerheads. Shyamlal is also an eccentric who eschews anything modern. Then, instead of Syamlal, his son Jiban Mallick is killed and the wealth of Mallick's looted. Oddly though, the dead body of Jiban Mallick vanishes, only to reappear again. Feluda works this out with a mixture of investigatingskills and deception. The oxymoric title addsa lot to the story.