When auto magnate Robert Bailey announces he is going to retire and turn his plant over to the employees he incurs the enmity of K.Y. Mitchell, a large stockholder in the company; Carey MacGregor, head of a parts manufacturing company that depends on Bailey Motors for most of its business; Logan Walters, general manager of the business and his social-climbing wife Laura; and Mary Brookhart, a predatory widow who is also a large stockholder and in love with Bailey. Bailey announces he is flying to his mountain retreat for a vacation and to complete the transfer of his interests to the employees. On the way to the airport, Bailey's car is side-swiped and his private plane cracks up before leaving the ground. Bailey is injured and his taken home, and narrowly escapes death when a bullet is fired through his bedroom window, He hires noted detective Frank Rogers to investigate. Mitchell, MacGregor, Walters, Mary, and Bailey's ne'er-do-well nephew Ralph are all suspected by the detective. In a scheme to make the guilty party show his hand, Bailey, his attorney Nelson Dudley, and Rogers decide to invite the suspects to a weekend party at Bailey's lodge. The nephew brings an uninvited guest, Doris. A dummy decoy is placed in Bailey's bed and another detective placed on watch. The next morning, the operative is found dead from a bullet fired through the window. On Dudley's advice, Bailey and Rogers agree to keep the killing secret. Another detective, accompanied by Dudley, takes the body to town, and later this detective is found dead. MacGregor returns from a hunting trip and tells Bailey and Rogers he knows the name of the guilty party but, just as he about to reveal the name, he is shot from outside. Though MacGregor is not killed, Rogers announces that he is dead. Rogers calls a midnight meeting of all the guests and Bailey, noting that Dudley is missing, starts a search of the house. He is attacked in the cellar, but subdues his assailant.
—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>