First published in 1927, The Lover Demon begins with a secret society of mystics in London that magically communicates over great distances with other occultists. so we learn that the magic of society works, that it is part of an international group and that it is plotting to gain political power at the insistence of one member, a man named Lucas. We also see that most of society is against Lucas and his conspiracies. This leads to Lucas having his own scheme after the end of the meeting: find an unsuspecting but mentally gifted person who will serve him as a medium, and through a charmed medium spy on other members of society to gain more mystical knowledge