Joane Proctor and her boyfriend, Nick Blake, both work at a home for disabled children. The Gage Youth Foundation in Palos Verdes is funded by the elderly Carleton Gage who, on his death bed, asks Joane to contact Perry Mason to change his will. Concerned that his life's work, the Foundation, will be destroyed, he now wishes to disinherit his son-in-law, Ernest Demming, and nephew, George Gage. He has proof that they are plotting to split the entire estate, no matter who inherits. When Nick Blake finds Demming dead of an apparent heart attack before Carleton Gage dies, he conceives of an elaborate plot to try and protect the Foundation assuming Gage will die very soon. Unfortunately, the old man does not die until later the next day forcing Nick to dispose of the body in a lake. Nick and Joane then execute a plan in which the body of Demming supposedly goes over a cliff into the ocean after a heart attack after Joane exits the car. In doing so however, Joane is charged with his murder and Perry has to defend her court.
—garykmcd