Traveling to Occo with his uncle to attend a mysterydom award ceremony, young Finn becomes skeptical of the author nominees as strange, life-threatening events keep occurring.

Finn and his mystery writer uncle are off to exotic Occo, located between Lesser Occo and Morocco. Uncle Stoppard has been nominated for the most prestigious award in mysterydom: the Ruby Raven. The grand prize? One million dollars, as well as a dark, carved bird with real rubies for eyes and a ruby pendant dangling from its neck.

Even with all of the excitement of Uncle Stoppard's nomination, Finn starts getting nervous. There was a strange car that exploded just as they were leaving the airport, and a Moroccan cobra that was slithering in his room when he arrived.... Is it a coincidence? Or could one of the invited authors be too eager to win the bucks and the bird?