A beautiful socialite widow comes to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin to ask them to investigate why a baby has been abandoned on her doorstep, in a case that all too quickly leads to murder.
A private club is the setting for murder whe n Paul Jerim, playing chess with twelve opponents, is poison ed. When her father is accused of the murder, beautiful Sall y Blount calls on gourmet detective Nero Wolfe to find the real killer.
Nero Wolfe attempts to find the killer who murdered his victim with Wolfe's own necktie, and he encounters a list of bizarre suspects, including a gun-toting wife and a cop-hating landlady.
When the seemingly safe return of an abducted millionaire ends in his murder in his own home, Nero Wolfe sends Archie Goodwin to do his usual legwork, while Wolfe uncovers corruption and greed among Manhattan's elite.
A bidding war for his services interrupts Nero Wolfe's attempts to solve the case of the businessman who died in his love nest--a case in which the police seem oddly uninterested.
