On the occasion, in 1948, of Eliot's sexagenarianism, Every wrote for a dedicatory compendium a piece on the poet's religious leanings and its broader significance.
Aaron, a wealthy amateur scholar, hires sexagenarian private investigator Howard, whom he meets at a chess club in Chicago to which they both belong, to investigate the gods Baal, Ashtoroth and Moloch, that were worshipped for centuries in Israel during a period of antiquity when the God of Abraham had fallen into disfavor.