American professor Peter Kleist travels to Austria on summer holiday to learn more about his family roots. By reciting an incantation on a piece of ancient parchment, he succeeds in scaring up a genuine ancestor; Baron Otto von Kleist, a 16th century sadistic nobleman whose appetite for cruelty earned him the nickname 'Baron Blood.' Before Peter can reverse the incantation, the parchment burns.

After a robbery at a research institute leads to murder, a blind puzzle maker and a reporter follow nine clues in their investigation.