Bruce and Marie Chapman have marital trouble because of her compulsive gambling. After Bruce cuts off her funds and leaves town, Marie blackmails her former husband and his wife, Walter and Helen Sprague. He returns to find her dead.

Sleazy detective Fred Bushmiller questions movie actress Lorna Thomas whether she gave birth 25 years earlier to a daughter who was put up for adoption. George Clark pushes his wife Betty to see if she is Lorna's long-lost daughter.

Larry Benton plays poker with Ben Wallace, Johnny Clay and Mike Granger at Clay's beach house. When he caught Granger cheating, a scuffle ensues and a gun goes off leaving Mike dead. Ben blackmails Larry. Not all is as it seems, however.

Hudson Nichols has Mitsou Kamuri arrested for switching his wife Thelma's string of expensive blush pearls, but offers to absolve her if she breaks off her relationship with his son Grove. Then her uncle who made the pearls is murdered.

Clara Hammon marries disabled "John Brant," but the bridegroom is really actor Earl Mauldin. Through a series of crafty moves, the real John Brant has gained control of everything that Jo Ann Blanchard and her brother Terry have inherited.

Perry Mason finds himself defending his private investigator Paul Drake against a charge of murder. It all began when Frank Thatcher hit a pedestrian walking on the side of the road and kills him. He hires Paul to payoff the widow.

Sylvia Welles asks Rip Conners to bug her apartment to make a bogus tape as a joke. She asks Richard Vanaman over to explain an investment prospectus. He discovers the bug and makes threatening remarks, but Welles blames it on her husband.

A model is charged with murdering a fashion designer after trying to recover documents showing they had an affair. In addition she was found with drawings of the new fashions which are being stolen from the company to make knockoffs.

Allen Sheridan's aunt comes to Los Angeles to find out why he won't pay her the monthly stipend his dad required. Meanwhile, Sheridan is scheming to cheat other people out of their money at the same time he comes into his full inheritance.

In Cloverdale, Utah, Marjorie Cluny is chosen "Lucky Legs," but her boyfriend, Bob Doray, accuses the show's producer, Frank Patton, of running a bogus contest. Marjorie goes to Hollywood anyway and disappears, followed by Patton's murder.

Phil Beecher returns from a year in prison for vehicular manslaughter of Aggie Norris the sheriff's daughter. His wife Kathi forgives him, although the people of the town despise him. Phil is charged when sister Charlotte Norris is killed.

Howard Walters and his mistress, Janice Atkins, plan to rob Wade Taylor's company, blame Taylor's son, and fake Walters' death. Janice schemes with Roger Porter to double-cross Howard. Plans go amiss and Taylor's wife is charged with murder.

Walking down the street, Korean War veteran Arthur Poe is shocked to see a book about the war displayed, 'written' by Ben Sutton who was with him in the war. The book is a bestseller but is actually based on a diary Poe kept in the war.

Perry takes on the case of Jefferson Pike who is referred to him by none other than DA Hamilton Burger. Pike and Burger are old friends - Pike once saved his life - and the D.A. officially removes himself from anything to do with the case.

The CEO of a company is in a proxy fight with another officer with a bad reputation. The CEO is forced to grant his wife a divorce to get her proxies. His opponent has the books checked which turns up a huge theft and a murder.

A man is caught on camera killing his wife by pushing her over a cliff in a car. The photographer blackmails the man, bleeding him dry, as the man cons others by overselling ownership in a wildcat well. The con man is then murdered.

A novelist sends her secretary to pick up a package at a remote cabin but in the driving rain her car becomes stuck. At a cabin a man denies knowing anything about a package but allows her to dry off. He disappears, and she finds a body.

In Rowena, CA where draw poker is legal, Manning Ennis pays a casino manager, Slim Marcus, $60,000 to settle his losses. The only witness to the game is the singing cigarette girl, Betty Roberts. When Ennis' wife is killed, she is charged.

Perry, looking for a roving prospector as a witness, runs into a young couple working a worthless gold mine. Their neighbor wants to buy the property but they refuse to sell. When the neighbor is murdered, the young owner is charged.

When a Matisse painting is stolen from a museum, the finger is pointed at an assistant in the museum whose boyfriend is an artist as well as his estranged wife. The wife tries to blackmail the museum owner but is murdered after a fight.

A developer sets up a trap to catch one of his nephews who he suspects of stealing information for their own profit. When the trap catches no one but the information leaks, he turns to Perry. Perry finds the thief - dead in his garage.

A fashion designer on live TV negates a deal her husband/partner brokered with another firm. Later, before their fashion show she takes a pill with champagne provided by her husband and shortly falls to the floor saying she was poisoned.

Perry moves to military court to defend a submariner of two murders - one his wife. The second victim is an officer investigating the murder and in charge of approving a new device for the Navy from a company bought by his father-in-law.

A man travels to Outcast to thank a man who donated to the orphanage where he was raised but is turned away due to his looks by everyone but a man he met fishing. When the man he came to thank is murdered, he is charged with the crime.

Inventor James Frazer thinks his wife Thelma is having an affair, so he leaves for three months to work on his aircraft anti-collision device. James returns home to find his locked workshop in flames and Thelma dead inside of a gunshot.

After funeral services for Louise Holbrook, her daughter, ten-million-dollar heiress Trudy, meets a man who claims to be her father, long-gone Jay Holbrook. The family head, old Cousin Lawrence King, is blind and cannot identify Holbrook.