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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.

Bruce Chapman is fed up with his wife Marie's lavish spending, especially her gambling addiction. As he leaves on a 6-week business trip, he puts Marie on a $50-a-week allowance, she threatens to divorce him and he suggests that she think about what's more important to her. Desperate for $2000, Marie pressures her ex-husband Walter Sprague and his new wife Helen to come up with the cash. Helen agrees to meet Marie at their summer cabin at 9:00 PM. Helen is discovered there by a neighbor out riding his horse; instead of Marie, they find a note from her. When Bruce returns early from his trip, he discovers that Marie's in Las Vegas and has filed for divorce. He contacts Perry about the implications of the divorce on his will and for general advice as he plans to pay her the $25,000 she asked for as a settlement. But when he goes to his weekend cabin, he finds Marie strangled. It's up to Perry to sort through the case that involves false identities and perjured testimony.—garykmcd

Importer Bruce Chapman (Karl Weber) is finishing up dictation with his secretary Grace Norwood (Mary LaRoche) before leaving on a long trip to the Orient. He tells his wife Marie (Peggy Knudsen) that he has closed their joint bank accounts and has put her on an allowance of $50 per week. It's clear to him from her frequent trips to Las Vegas and the way she goes through money that she has a gambling problem. Marie is angry - she wants a divorce and expects $25,000 as an immediate settlement. After a brief attempt to get her to seek help, he leaves for the airport. Marie phones someone she addresses only as "darling" and says that Bruce has cut her off, but she'll get the money somehow. She calls her first husband Walter Sprague (Robert Osterloh), but he's at work and she speaks with his new wife Helen (Marianne Stewart). She demands an immediate payment of $2000, but says that in exchange she'll cancel the debt to her Walter has been paying off in $50 monthly installments. Helen says she'll comply, with her own money, and Marie tells her to come to her cabin at 9 PM.

That night Greg Evans (Charles Cooper) rides by, sees the lights of a cabin go out, and goes in to investigate. He catches Helen, who explains she's waiting for Marie, then they both notice a note that had fallen on the floor. It's from Marie, saying she had to leave and that if Helen knows what's good for her, she'll get a $2000 check to her at the Caravan Hotel in Vegas by tomorrow. Helen shows Greg the check she brought, and he apologizes for being so suspicious.

Some days later, Bruce is back early from his trip, and he is shocked to find in his mail a formal notice that Marie is suing him for divorce, from Las Vegas. He goes to Perry, telling him that he won't contest the divorce. Perry calls Ralph Hibberly (James Seay), the attorney named in the notice to Bruce. He says that Marie absolutely refuses to talk to Bruce. She demands $25,000 now, or she'll request her full entitlement under community property, around $150,000. Perry will have one of Paul's men go to Vegas with the check.

At a ravine near the cabin, Bruce is checking out a wrecked car when he is approached by Lt. Tragg, who takes him to the morgue. There, Bruce identifies a body as Marie. Tragg arrests him for murder. In jail, Bruce tells Perry that he suspected Marie was seeing another man, so after checking in for his flight, he drove to the cabin, found Marie strangled, panicked, put her in her car, pushed it into the ravine, returned to the airport, took a later flight, and returned ten days later. When he saw the divorce notice, he talked himself into believing - or at least acting as if he believed - that Marie had only been unconscious. It's now obvious that someone impersonated Marie to get the $25,000 - and that person must have known Bruce was in no position to reveal the fakery.

Perry visits Ginny Hobart (Marion Marshall), who was partnered with Marie in her old "sister act" (although they weren't really sisters - hence the episode title), "Ginny & Marie, Dance Stylists". She tells him that Marie came to her first, but she didn't have anything like $2000, so Marie decided to shake down Walter and Helen instead. This is the first that Perry has heard of the couple. Ginny notes that Marie never bothered to tell Bruce about her first marriage. Meanwhile, Paul is in Las Vegas, talking to Hibberly. He says he never got a good look at the fake Marie, who always wore large sunglasses. He recalls that by chance he saw her that day at the airport, during the noon recess of his court case. She was boarding a flight to L.A.

Back at the office, Paul reports that the flight Hibberly mentioned arrived in L.A. at 1:20. This would seem to eliminate Ginny, who was talking to Perry at 12:30, and Helen, who kept a dental appointment at 11:30. That leaves Bruce's secretary Grace, who had been away for a while, supposedly on vacation in the desert, but has now returned. Perry has Della call Hibberly, using Grace's name and address. She offers him $150 to come to her place in L.A. to consult on a legal problem to delicate to discuss over the phone. Perry and Della visit Grace, who admits she knew about Bruce's argument with Marie and her demand for $25,000. Grace answers the door and it's Hibberly. There is no sign of recognition between them - just confusion. Perry admits this was his doing and pays the divorce lawyer the promised $150.

In court, Walter testifies that Bruce visited him the day before his trip - having just learned of the existence of Marie's previous husband. He says he told Bruce that when he knew Marie she gambled, but not immoderately, and she ran around with other men, but not indiscriminately. Greg testifies to seeing Bruce coasting downhill in his car with the lights off. On cross-examination, he admits that he sometimes went horseback riding with Marie when both were at their cabins, but Bruce didn't ride. During a break, Paul reports that the Sprague house was broken into last night, but nothing appears to have been taken. Perry says they should look for something the thief may have been seeking but couldn't find.

Perry questions Ginny about her claim that she was too broke to help Marie the day before the murder, but eleven days later she called her agents to retire from her act, then a day later cancelled the retirement. She says that there was a man, but he soon changed his mind. She also confirms that she'd never been to Marie's cabin. However, Perry produces a photo that shows her with Greg in front of the cabin. He accuses her of being the impersonator. She cashed the check, retired, lost the money gambling, then had to "unretire". She says she was at the cabin, saw Bruce push Marie's car into the ravine, then concocted the fake divorce scheme, knowing Bruce would have to play along. Perry then recalls Hillerby, and shows him papers that Helen and Della found in a search of the Sprague house. They're from Walter and Marie's divorce, and name Hillerby as the attorney. He admits he tried to steal the papers because they prove he couldn't possibly be fooled by a fake Marie. He and Marie began a relationship shortly after the divorce and it was he, not Marie, who was the gambler. She only came to Vegas to be with him. Finally, he confesses to killing her.

Later, Paul explains that Hillerby was with Marie at the cabin. They got into an argument, he wanting her to go through with the divorce and she refusing. He told her that he'd stop seeing her if she didn't go along. Marie, unused to being treated the way she treated others, grew vicious. There was a struggle that ended with Hillerby choking her. He heard Bruce coming and hid, then later went to Ginny with the fake Marie scheme. Grace's mysterious trip was to Phoenix, where she attended the last hours of her terminally ill husband. Della passes on a message from her to Bruce: "Work is piling up and the office needs you." Perry says that sounds exactly like a secretary.