In the tradition of novel noir, nothing is ever quite as it seems. Novelist and war hero Tony Leonard sees private investigator Edwin Malory being mugged outside a seaman's mission in downtown Los Angeles, so he takes him home and gives him clean clothes and access to a hot shower. It doesn't take him long to discover Malory was hired by wealthy industrialist Linton Vanderbilt Stirling, the father of Tony's estranged wife, Janet. The reason for this is simple: Tony's father-in-law suspects him of drinking away his daughter's personal fortune. On a whim, Tony drops in on Janet one night and finds her naked, dead, and tied up, her skull beaten in. Horrified, Tony flees the scene, knowing that as her husband, he is the number one suspect in the killing. He sees only one way out. He needs to fake his own death. And who better to send his "suicide note" to than Edwin Malory.