In front of an amazed audience, Carter proceeds to chop the president into pieces, cut off his head, and feed him to a lion, before restoring him to health.

Along the way he encounters many historical figures, including fellow magicians Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston, United States President Warren G. Harding, BMW founder Max Friz, the Marx Brothers, business magnate Francis Marion "Borax" Smith, the inventor of electronic television Philo Farnsworth, and San Franciscan madams Tessie Wall and Jessie Hayman.

Unbeknownst to Agent Griffin, President Harding passed a great secret to Carter: a young inventor named Philo Farnsworth has a new invention called television.

In the afterword of the book, author Glen David Gold credits the writings of Nevil Maskelyne, David Devant, Robert Houdin, Howard Thurston, F. B. Nightingale, Augustus Rapp, T. Nelson Downs, James Randi, Harry Kellar, Ottawa Keyes, Ricky Jay and Walter Gibson.

"[1] A L Kennedy in The Observer stated that "Carter Beats the Devil is a big, mischievous, intelligent read – nice to see a bit of magic in fiction again".