Low-budget producer Ted Carson is a master of publicity. He has a production underway which will make him respectable if it succeeds. But he wants "a little insurance" in the form of free publicity for his company's arrival in Hong Kong. He arranges for their airliner to make an unnecessary emergency landing. Evans doesn't fall for the stunt but he likes Carson's new discovery, actress Lisa Mario. Carson has also arranged for her to disappear for a few days while a ransom note appears. He has even arranged for his financial backers to raise the hundred thousand dollars that the note demands, though Lisa is supposed to "escape" before the payoff is needed. Lisa cooperates with misgivings. The stunt goes over well with most of the press but Evans doesn't believe it. While he investigates, Lisa changes her mind. She wants to escape early. But Carson's local contact has movie ambitions of his own: using a hundred thousand dollars to bankroll a personal studio. Carson doesn't figure into that plan. Evans has to depend on the word of another big dreamer, a fanciful newsboy, to find Lisa.