After a two-year absence, Hartley Basset returns to Los Angeles just as his wife is about to use his proxy to dissolve the company he founded and create a new firm with Peter Dawson, who has taken over the presidency of the firm in his absence. Basset is told that the others assume he stole $6,000 from the firm when he left which is a surprise to him. Basset fires Dawson and when Perry Mason contacts him on Dawson's behalf, he suggests that his client has stolen funds from the firm. He asks to meet with Mason that night after he has finished going over the books. When Hartley Basset is found dead that very evening by Mason - with what proves to be a piece of Dawson's toupee in his hand - Perry's client is charged with his murder. In Perry's eyes however, there are several suspects including the dead man's wife Sybil, his son Dick and Dick's new wife Teddi who has now vanished and says she can identify the person who came out of Basset's office. Perry risks censure from the court as he tries to trick the culprit into revealing him or herself.
—garykmcd / edited by Rob