As usual, Braun introduces Qwill into a closed community, more or less isolated from the rest of the city, and Qwill must learn about the residents in that community in order to solve the mystery. Maus Haus functions like the villages of traditional mysteries. Among the residents are several suspicious characters, and Qwill must determine whether each one is sinister or merely eccentric.

Another Braun trademark is the cats' role in unearthing clues and foiling the villain's attempts on Qwill's life. In this novel, KoKo has mastered the typewriter, which replaces the unabridged dictionary as the Siamese's method for giving Qwill cryptic clues and menu suggestions. KoKo also finds the first evidence of Joy's new glazes and the peephole in Qwill's wall. His interest in a book on pottery eventually leads Qwill to the solution of the mystery, and the yarn web created by KoKo and YumYum literally...