The story was told from the perspective of Teodoro, the hero of this book. He was an unsophisticated scribe, who led a monotonous life in a Lisbon hotel. By accident, Teodoro read about a Chinese official with enormous wealth in a book. According to the book, the official would die if Teodoro toll a bell. And then Teodoro could inherit all his wealth. At this time, a demon appeared and urged Teodoro to toll the bell. The hero did not do it after all. However, he did have illusions that a group of strangers told him that a man named Zhai Chenfu would die. A month later, Teodoro said that he had inherited a huge amount of money from Zhai Chenfu...