Co-eds at Rudgate University are busy working on the school paper, the Whirligig , and on a school variety show. Dan Courtridge, editor of the paper, is about to print gossip about a budding romance between student Julie Fresnel, daughter of French chemistry professor Dr. Henri Fresnel, and Seth Dunlap, a chemistry instructor. When Dan is found dead in the Whirligig office during a dance rehearsal, authorities subpoena Seth's sister Sally, a reporter, who was the last person to see Dan alive. When the autopsy shows Dan died of poison, Sally becomes suspicious of Julie, who drank tea with Dan before his death, but withholds this information from the court at Seth's request. Subsequently, the court rules Dan's death a suicide. Meanwhile, songwriter Paul Gedney and the track team's Jake Lansing, who went to prep school with Dan, try to make love to Julie. Later, Paul is choked to death in his fraternity house across the street from the Fresnels' while Julie is taking a break from a dance rehearsal, circumstances that mimic Dan's murder. After Sally realizes both Julie and Henri lack alibis, she receives a note warning her not to get involved in the murder investigation. Undaunted, Sally goes to the Whirligig office and finds that a fan letter Dan mailed right before his death has been returned marked "address unknown." She takes the letter to Seth's lab where they discover the envelope's seal was laced with poison. Sally then realizes her warning note and the fan letter were written on the same typewriter. Jake offers to watch Julie's mother, who was paralyzed in an auto accident the night of Dan's murder, while Julie goes to rehearsal. Later in the evening, Sally finds Jake nearly choked to death and Mrs. Fresnel on the floor, claiming she crawled downstairs when she heard noises. Chief of Police Magoun then questions Jake and learns that Dick Penfield, Mrs. Fresnel's son by a previous marriage, went to St. Jude's prep school with the three victims, where he died of heart failure. Although Sally is in love with Jake, he loves Julie, who is still devoted to Seth. Determined to save Jake's life, Sally searches the Fresnel attic and finds the typewriter. Julie joins her in the attic and discovers a rope missing from Henri's bound newspapers. Eager to clear Julie's name, Seth visits St. Jude's and learns Dick was literally "scared to death" during a fraternity hazing in which he was blindfolded and tied to a gravestone and left alone. Dan, Paul and Jake, who were close friends of Dick, had participated in the hazing, but had been cleared of any responsibility. Before Seth returns to Rudgate, Julie, who is anxious to save Jake's life, joins him at a secluded cabin. After informing him the rope came from her house, she promises to marry him that night. Sally follows them, however, and finds the Fresnels' crazy servant, Posey, leaving the cabin. Sally then steals the couple's car keys so they cannot leave and meets up with Seth. Magoun and Detective Cummings, meanwhile, visit the Fresnels and accuse Mrs. Fresnel of murdering the boys to avenge her son's death. When Mrs. Fresnel learns Julie is with Jake at the cabin, she becomes half-crazed and confesses that she had Posey plant a bomb in the cabin, which is set to go off at eight o'clock. She then reveals that her paralysis is faked when she jumps out of bed. Sally and Seth arrive at the cabin in time to save Jake and Julie, but Mrs. Fresnel rushes in to save Julie and is killed. Julie and Seth then become engaged and Sally wins Jake.