In turn-of-the-century New York City, young Harry Houdini takes work with Harry Kellar, the "Dean of American Magicians," in this second book of the series. One night the performance of his master's Floating Lady illusion goes horribly wrong, and Kellar's levitating assistant apparently plunges to her death. Houdini, along with his wife Bess and brother Dash, must prove that the young lady actually died from drowning rather than a fatal fall.