The famous American detective, Nick Carter, is summoned from his New York office by Chief of Police, Inspector Kaunitz of Prague to solve The Mystery of the Century. Countess Thunova's beloved Gert has disappeared!

Following the clue afforded by a carnivorous plant, and quite undismayed by the discovery that Gert is a dog, Nick is soon hot on the trail of his arch-rival, Baron von Kratzmar, alias The Gardener — named for his villainous obsession with carnivorous plants. Von Kratzmar's prize creation, Adele, has a passion for dogs — and the occasional human — which it consumes to the strains of a Mozart lullaby.

With the aid of a bumbling Commissar Ledvina and the beautiful Kvetuska (with whom, of course, he is fated to fall in love), Nick seeks out the evil von Kratzmar. Her fate, and that of her botanist grandfather, Bocek. lie in his hands. Nick, calm and unruffled as always, whisks miraculous changes of costume, a portable chemical laboratory, or an album of world criminals, from his bag of tricks. No feat, however technical, is beyond his powers!

Nick Carter's world is that of the fabulous silent serials of Louis Feuillade, and the spirit is that of his Fantomas and Judex — a world that is re-created lovingly before our eyes.