It's a summer day in New Rochelle, New York, in the early 1900s. An upper-middle class family —Father, Mother, Grandfather, and Little Boy—are hanging out in a home Father built back in 1902. Mother's Younger Brother walks on the beach, head over heels for a famous model named Evelyn Nesbit, whose husband just shot her former lover, the architect Stanford White. Yikes, juicy gossip. We might think twice about dating a lady with a homicidal husband, though…
Little Boy watches a chauffeured car approach the house and then crash into telephone pole. Out steps the famous escape artist, Harry Houdini. He visits with the family and does some tricks. Then he heads off, but not before he's told by the Little Boy to "warn the Duke." Whoa, what's that supposed to mean? You'll find out.