The story revolves around a retired judge, Mr. Nishanath Sen, who stays at a farm house called Golap Colony (The Rose Colony) at the outskirts of Calcutta. The people who stay in the colony are a strange melee of handicaps, social outcasts and ex-convicts. One day the judge is murdered under mysterious circumstances. The local police assign Byomkesh to the investigation. As a close acquaintance of Sen, Byomkesh is more than willing to solve the murder mystery. Through many twists and turns in the story, he goes on to solve the mystery.
