The painter John Lafcadio was brilliantly talented and, it appears, a bit psychic: Certain that his reputation would improve dramatically after his death, he left several painting with his agent, along with the instruction that the widowed Mme. Lafcadio should wait a suitable interval and then begin doling out the work to a newly ravenous public. Albert Campion, an old friend of the widow's, is among the guests at Lafcadio's eighth such posthumous vernissage. The event is a success for all but one of the attendees--a young artist who is brutally murdered while others are sipping champagne.