It is 1964. The Sino Indian war is over. Opium is seeping into the city through invisible cracks and crime is on the rise. A few streets around Chinapara, Kolkata, have earned a reputation for notoriety. And it doesn't take long before a murder takes place on a street near a hostel for men at the fringe of the locality. It is during this time that an oddly curious young man by the name of Atul Mitra arrives at the hostel looking for a place to stay. He is reluctantly allowed to lodge with the help of Ajit, a young struggling writer. Soon after another murder takes place and this time it is a resident of the hostel.The story unfolds through the eyes of Ajit, as Atul solves the mystery of drug trade and the murders one straw at a time. Atul is none other than the legendary fictional sleuth, Byomkesh Bakshi. A few years after this case is solved another strange murder takes place at a mansion at the heart of the city. The victim is Karalibabu, a wealthy contractor and a childless widower. The murder weapon is a stitching needle pierced into his spinal cord just below the medulla oblongata. Byomkesh is called upon to investigate the case. The nephews and nieces of Karalibabu, living in the mansion, are all probable suspects. The victim had attracted resentment from quite a few of them with his rude remarks and by frequently excluding them from his will after an altercation.