Trama

Framed for embezzlement by her fiance, Millicent Crest decides to flee. She picks up another woman who causes them to have an accident. The woman is killed, so Millie takes her name but finds she has walked into a scandal.

Bob Wallace breaks off his engagement to Millie Crest after involving her in an embezzlement scheme. Millie hurriedly leaves town and gives a lift to Fern Driscoll, who tries to hijack the car, causing it to plunge down a canyon. Fern is killed and Millie assumes her identity and travels on to Los Angeles, where she is contacted by a shady insurance investigator, Carl Davis. Davis tries to recover incriminating letters from Fern/Millie, who knows nothing about them. That evening Millie protects herself by stabbing an intruder with an icepick. The intruder is Davis, who later contacts Millie and threatens to harm her if she doesn't produce the letters. Davis is representing Senator Baylor, up for re-election, who wanted his son separated from Fern Driscoll. Millie sends Perry Mason to represent her in this matter. Davis dies and Millie is charged with his murder.—richardann

When Millie Crest's boyfriend Bob Wallace jilts her days before their wedding and informs her that he's stolen $9000 from the company they both work for, he adds that it's with her books he's fiddled so she should be careful. On the run, she rescues Fern Driscoll, whose car has broken and agrees to give her a lift. When they have an accident and Driscoll is killed, Millie adopts her identity, unaware that Driscoll herself was on the run. When Millie is approached by an insurance investigator, she decides to get advice from Perry Mason, though she isn't entirely honest with him about her identity. Davis is after some letters that are in Fern's possession and when he is found dead, Millie is charged with his murder and Perry defends her.—garykmcd

Millie Crest (Ruta Lee) thanks the departing guests at her bridal shower. She's marrying Bob Wallace (John Bryant), her co-worker in the accounting department of Marshall City Power & Light. Bob calls from the airport to tell her their romance is over for good. He's leaving town with $9000 he embezzled from the company. He warns her that she should leave too - he did most of his juggling in her books.

Millie, having hit the road, stops for gas and offers a ride to Fern Driscoll (Helene Stanley), whose car has broken down. As they drive, Fern explains that she's heading for a new start in L.A., where no ones knows her. Millie says that wouldn't work for her. Fern pulls out a gun and orders Millie to pull over. Millie panics, and the car goes through a guard rail and over an embankment.

Days later, at a restaurant in L.A., Millie reads that the body found in the crash has been identified as fugitive Mildred Crest. Laura Richards (Eve McVeagh) notices Millie reading the Apartments for Rent want-ads and introduces herself. She has an apartment she needs to share because she can't afford it alone on her $85 per week salary. Millie, unaccustomed to the high cost of living in the big city, thinks this is a big income. She agrees to look at the apartment, telling Laura that she's "Fern Driscoll". As they leave, insurance investigator Fred Earnshaw (Sam Buffington) observes them.

Fred calls his partner Carl Davis (Robert Bray), who is staying at a hotel with his suspicious wife Marjory (Betty Lou Gerson). He reports that "Fern", whom he's been tailing since he saw her in the vicinity of the accident, is now living at Laura's apartment. Carl reports to Senator Harriman Baylor (Barton MacLane), who tells him to see "Fern", and leave his name out of it. At the shared apartment, a nice enough place despite a broken doorbell, Carl explains that he knows all about the embezzlement charges against the supposedly dead Millie, and reveals that the autopsy revealed she was pregnant. He and Fred figured out that Fern was in the car by finding an "F.D." locket at the crash scene. Officially, he's there to get her to sign a statement for his insurance company, stating that she was driving at the time of the accident. What he really wants is the "you-know-what" concerning Johnny Baylor (James Kirkwood Jr.) that he assumes "Fern" has. He ignores Millie's avowal of not knowing what he's talking about, and tells her that he'll come back around 7 PM. If he doesn't get what he wants, he'll go to the police. After he leaves, Laura enters, says she overheard, and suggests that her roommate talk to Perry.

In Perry's office, Millie, still calling herself "Fern", tells of her freak survival of the car crash and describes Carl's visit. Perry tells her to refer Carl to him. To make it official that he's her lawyer, he has her pay him a retainer - she happens to have 38 cents on her. After she leaves, he tells Della that he doesn't think she told him the truth. Who'd let a hitchhiker drive a few minutes after meeting her?

At the apartment, Millie is finding that Fern's clothes are a bit big for her, so she uses an icepick as an awl to punch a new hole in a belt. She hears a noise in the outer room and calls to Laura. The lights go out, and Millie goes into that room, where she bumps into a man in the darkness. She falls, but the man flees, taking the icepick with him. From his hotel room, a bandaged and coughing Carl calls Perry, saying his client stabbed him and threatening to go to the police. Perry visits Millie, who says she couldn't see who attacked her in the darkness. Perry addresses her as "Mildred" and she automatically answers "Yes?", unmasking herself.

Perry next visits Carl, whose version of the story is that "Fern" answered the door, then intentionally stabbed him. He'd still prefer not to involve the police, because the papers he wants are worth $10,000 to him. They're love letters from the Senator's son Johnny to Fern, which could ruin Baylor's chances of reelection if they came out in a paternity suit. Carl is still coughing, and Perry volunteers to have a doctor who'll keep his mouth shut examine him. He goes to the hotel's coffee shop to wait for Carl to make up his mind about the offer. Later, Lt. Tragg has found Perry in the coffee shop and brings him back to Carl's room. Waiting there are Sgt. Brice (Lee Miller), a sobbing Marjory, and a dead Carl.

Back at the office, Paul shows Perry and Della a photo of Senator Baylor from the day's paper. He's waving as he arrives in L.A., having arrived for a break in campaigning due to bursitis. As Perry enters Baylor's hotel, he spots Laura and Fred leaving together. Perry calls on the Senator and informs him that Carl has been stabbed to death. Baylor admits to hiring Carl and Fred to retrieve the letters, which could be very embarrassing to him. He reads from one he managed to obtain, and in it Johnny - angry that his father insists on breaking up his relationship with Fern and is even sending him to Alaska to accomplish this - says some things about his father that the opposition would love to get their hands on. Baylor says he was only paying $100 a day plus expenses, so the $10,000 figure probably means Carl was envisioning blackmail. Perry reveals that his client is Millie Crest, implying that Fern was the one killed in the crash. Baylor offers Perry $10,000 to represent him, but Perry says he has already accepted a $0.38 retainer from Millie.

In court, Laura identifies her icepick and says Millie knew about it. On cross-examination, she admits her visit to Baylor's hotel with Fred, but says they couldn't get in to see him and sell him information. Burger next calls the Senator, and explains to the court that he has bursitis in his right arm so needs to raise his left to take the oath. Baylor testifies he had no contact with Laura and Fred. He admits that he hired Carl to find Fern "concerning a private manner." Burger asks that this privacy be respected, and Perry agrees, subject to his right to recall the Senator later. Marjory testifies that Carl, realizing that he was dying, said that when he went to the apartment, he could see "Fern" in the dark room by the light in the hallway, and she stabbed him. Burger gets this admitted as a dying declaration (an exception to the rule against hearsay).

During the weekend recess, Perry gets a call from Johnny in Alaska. He brands the story about a threatened paternity suit a lie and arranges to fly to L.A. Perry tells Paul that once Johnny arrives, they should check hospitals in the Marshall City area for a young woman with memory loss. At the Dr. Barnes Seaside Hospital they find such a patient (Jan Harrison), whom Johnny immediately recognizes as the real Fern Driscoll. He goes to her, and after a moment she recognizes him, and there's a joyful reunion.

In court, Perry identifies the likely accident victim as Brenda Scobie, a convicted armed robber, pregnant, who had just escaped from Tehachapi. (Actually, Tehachapi had stopped being a women's prison in 1952.) She assaulted the real Fern with a blunt instrument, resulting in her memory loss, then took her possessions, including the car that broke down. Burger says this doesn't alter the substance of the murder case against Millie, and the judge (Richard Gaines) agrees. Perry recalls the Senator, and insists that he be sworn in. Burger starts to repeat the bursitis story, but Perry objects to the D.A. giving evidence. The judge asks Baylor, but Perry warns him that they can have a doctor determine whether his right arm is disable by bursitis - or an icepick wound. The Senator admits that he was the one who went to Laura and Millie's apartment, thought no one was home when he got no answer from the broken doorbell, went in through the open door, turned out the lights when he heard Millie call out, felt the pain of being stabbed, and somehow fled with the icepick. Outside, he met Carl on his way to see Millie. Carl took the icepick and said that he'd pretend that he was the one who was stabbed, in order to pressure "Fern" into giving up Johnny's letters. The judge asks if all that is true, then who stabbed Carl. Perry answers that only one person could have turned Carl's fake wound into a real one with the same icepick. At this, Marjory tries to flee the courtroom, but is stopped by the bailiff (Michael Jeffers). "He was going to leave me," she cries, "Leave me!"

Some time later, Perry gets a letter from (presumably ex-)Senator Baylor, saying that the real Fern is making good recovery. He hopes she'll remember everything except his bad behavior. Paul asks Perry how he figured out that Baylor had an icepick wound instead of bursitis in his right arm. Perry points to the newspaper photo that Paul himself had provided. It showed the deplaning Senator waving - with his right arm.