Rhoda Montaine, an old friend of lawyer Perry Mason, asks him to help a friend of hers who has just learned that her first husband, thought to be dead, is still alive. Suspecting that Rhoda herself is the woman in trouble, Perry has his friend, the coroner, exhume her first husband, Gregory Moxley's, coffin. Instead of a corpse, they find the statue of a wooden Indian. Having learned where Moxley lives, Perry decides to threaten him, but when he arrives, Moxley is dead. Perry then visits Rhoda's house, where her current husband, Carl Montaine, reveals that Rhoda has left him to protect him from a scandal. Realizing that this will make her appear guilty to the police, Perry follows her to the airport and has her surrender to the press. C. Phillip Montaine, Carl's father, insists that Rhoda's marriage to his son is illegimate, which would allow Carl to testify against her. To prevent that, Perry hires another woman to pretend to have married Moxley before Rhoda. Perry's detective, Spudsy Drake, discovers that Moxley had actually married showgirl Doris Pender, but even though her brother Oscar admits he was at Moxley's apartment on the night of the murder, he denies having committed the crime. Perry throws a cocktail party, inviting all the suspects. Oscar identifies Carl as the man who ran down the stairs from the apartment. Carl admits that he was there, but explains that Moxley died accidentally during a fight. Perry agrees to defend Carl by pleading self-defense, and Rhoda is cleared of all suspicion.