"Can Such Things Be" consists of 24 stories that could sometimes be as mysterious as the author himself, who disappeared at age 71 on tour in Mexico, and his ultimate fate has been one of the great unsolved mysteries till now. Most of the stories in the collection feature the theme of mysterious deaths or disappearances. Readers are invited to follow the cases of a man who fears consulting his pocket watch at 11 o'clock and drops dead when he accidentally does so or a guy who loses his father on a moonlight walk and never sees him again.