Jasper Barton, reporter for the Harperville Gazette, is pleasantly surprised when he gets called up on stage to aid the traveling prestidigitator, the Great Scotini, with a dangerous trick, pushing a sword through the man's forehead, and is astonished when he can't mark how the trick is done. It looks too real.

Going backstage to interview the magician for the paper, he soon realizes how right he was. The real sleight of hand, he soon learns, stems from the performers themselves, the magician and his unassuming assistant, the Lovely Janet. Not everything is as it seems. If only Jasper could find his notebook...