When certain mysterious events involving books occur, it seems that Inspector Dejan Lukic is always the man for the job. This time, however, things are a little different. Inspector Lukic himself is at the heart of the mystery, lured by the appearance of a number of packages addressed to him in person and left at several highly unlikely locations. The contents of these packages - a set of books known as "The Compendium of the Dead" - a series of bizarre disappearances and a succession of strange encounters keep the baffled Inspector on his toes right up until the extraordinary dénouement, in which the finality of death itself is challenged. In this, the final part of the trilogy that began with "The Last Book" and "The Grand Manuscript," Zoran Zivkovic demonstrates beyond contradiction the magical and ultimately benevolent power of literature.