Plot

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 a driving rainstorm Gladys Doyle, secretary to successful novelist Mauvis Meade, struggles to the door of a remote cabin. A strange man in the cabin denies he has a package for Mauvis. He disappears into the night, and Gladys finds a dead man in the cabin. Mauvis herself arrives at her home to find the place in a shambles, and shyster Gregory Dunkirk is glad that incriminating materials he gave Meade for her latest novel have been stolen. Gladys appears and tells her boss about the dead man, who turns out to be a Las Vegas gambler, Joseph Manley. Gladys consults Perry Mason and is arrested for murder. Perry runs into Caspar Pedley being thrown out of Meade's apartment and later finds he is the brother-in-law of the dead man. It doesn't help that Meade won't back up Gladys' story. A scarf decorated with three mythical monkeys is found at the cabin with bullets in it, meant to implicate Mauvis in the crime. Other evidence points to Gladys. Perry must discover who is the framer, who was the man at the cabin, and what happened to the package.—richardann

Perry Mason finds himself defending Gladys Doyle who, until she was charged with murder, worked as a secretary to well-known mystery writer Mauvis Meade. Gladys' employer had sent her to meet a Hollywood news reporter she was scheduled to see, and then asked her to go on to a remote cabin to collect a package for her. In the driving rain, and with her car broken down, Gladys is admitted to the cabin by a stranger who conveniently vanishes a few minutes later. It's then that she discovers the body of a dead man, Joseph Manley. Mason learns that Manley worked in Las Vegas at a casino along with his wife and was only supposed to have been away for a short time. There is no connection with Gladys Doyle, but Mauvis Meade denies having sent her to the cabin in the first place. It's apparent that Meade is under pressure to perjure herself, but by who, and for what purpose, is not obvious. Mason has to wade through lies, impersonators, and organized crime to get to the truth.—garykmcd