Four brilliant men have died mysteriously—and the only clue is the carved tail of a golden scorpion left beside their bodies. The man behind the horror calls himself 'The Scorpion,' and he is clearly a man of superior cunning. When the finest detectives of France and England—Gaston Max and Inspector Dunbar—join forces to stop the Scorpion before he can add a fifth victim to his list, the twisting trail takes them from the haunts of London's underworld to the seamy opium dens of Chinatown—and from there into the 'Lair of the Scorpion.'