While enjoying a quiet day of fishing from a pier, Oliver Hardy reads a notice in a newspaper requesting that relatives of a deceased millionaire, Mr. Laurel, attend the reading of his will. Presuming that the millionaire was an uncle of Ollie's friend, Stan Laurel, Ollie takes Stan on a train to Chicago, where they hope to complete the necessary proceedings to achieve riches the fast way. Upon entering the deceased's gloomy mansion, they are informed by a detective that Laurel was murdered and that no one is allowed to leave the mansion until the case is closed. During the night, Stan and Ollie experience a variety of terrors associated with haunted houses: sliding panels, floating bed sheets and bats disturb their attempts to sleep as the murderer rapidly reduces the number of heirs. Just as Ollie is about to be stabbed to death by a sinister hand, he wakes up in fright on the edge of the pier. His nightmare begins to fade, but the inheritance also vanishes.