"The Bronze Hand" is a mystery novel set in Boston, in the time of Abraham Lincoln's presidency. A man is drawn to a beautiful woman in distress. Her body language reveals to him her deep anxiety. When he enquires about it, she tells him that she has just been robbed of her most valuable possession, a steel ring that she normally wears. But her story turns strange when she requests him to visit a certain office and locate a locked box with a bronze hand inside it. She tells him that her ring must not be placed on the middle finger of the bronze hand under any circumstances whatsoever…