At a New York airport, a passenger plane arriving from Washington D.C. crash-lands, yet no one is aboard. The aircraft had been hijacked at its previous stop, leaving only the pilot and two leading industrialists; a stash of securities worth $100,000 is also missing, setting the stage for a tangled mystery.
Although he promised his fiancée from Texas, Bonnie Caldwell, that he would quit solving crimes, Tom Lawrence, better known as The Falcon, cannot resist a fresh challenge. When the daughter of one of the missing men, Nancy Palmer, receives a ransom note, she pleads for his help in locating her father. One of the prime suspects in her eyes is Iris Fairchild, a jealous cousin of Nancy.
Police Inspector Insp. Timothy Donovan and his assistant, Det. Bates, carry out the formal inquiry. As the investigation unfolds, nearly all the passengers are found stranded at a rest stop, with Nancy’s father, Stanley Harris Palmer, and his assistant, Wally Fairchild, remaining unaccounted for elsewhere. Nancy is instructed to leave $25,000 at a drinking fountain, while Iris Fairchild implies that Ken Gibson, Ken Gibson, tipped off the kidnapper about the hidden money.
Tom joins Iris and Nancy on their trip to the Palmer residence, and soon he notices Nancy leaving a box by the fountain. When two men retrieve the box, Tom trails their car on horseback and discovers it belongs to an antique store run by George Morley. Donovan later reveals Palmer is alive, and that Palmer and Fairchild had stayed on the aircraft before being robbed; the strangers forced Palmer to parachute while the pilot’s controls were left on autopilot. Tom also recovers a fragment of wreckage from the plane and the missing securities, handing them to Donovan for analysis.
The case grows murkier as Donovan suspects Fairchild, while state troopers report that the missing pilot and Fairchild have been found dead in a field. George Morley becomes a leading suspect, only to vanish soon after. As the Falcon pieces together the flight’s second act, with the other passengers gone, a horrifying sequence emerges: Palmer killed Fairchild, who possessed proof of Palmer’s government-related deceit, and then, after take-off, Palmer is implicated in killing the pilot and disposing of the bodies.
Palmer’s dog attacks Morley in the antique store, and Donovan arrives just in time to witness Tom shoot Palmer in self-defense. Back at the airport, Bonnie tells Tom she intends to return to Texas on her own. Dejected, Tom contemplates giving up on relationships, vowing to abandon all women—until a pretty co-ed asks for his help, renewing the Falcon’s restless drive for justice.
