Bang. A shot goes off in the night. Scientist Ryohei Jagata is shot dead by an unknown assailant in his home. The assailant then steals a precious, and mysterious, stone hidden in Jagata's eye socket. He then makes his escape, but not before alerting Jagata's butler, Hanawa and Mimio. Mimio and Hanawa investigate what happened before running into the famous detective Shunsaku Ban, Mr. Mustachio.
Mustachio overheard the gunshot as he was close by when it happened. After inquiring into why Jagata may have been targeted, Mimio brings Mustachio to the lab where he was born. Who is the assailant, what are his intentions, and what is the true nature of the mysterious stone? Tezuka's famous SF work, filled with Adventure, Mystery, and Tragedy!

Part of the famous "World Trilogy" consisting of this work, "Nextworld", and "Metropolis".

Note: The most widely available version (including the english one) is the 1948 one, directly published by Fuji Shobou. This is a remake of an unfinished series Tezuka wrote for the Kansai Kyouron Shinbun in 1946, which has been lost. He remade the series once again in 1955 for Bouken Ou under the title "Zenseiki Hoshi", but this version too has been lost.