Banker Walter Craig, Gus Glassmire, has vanished, and his best friend Ed Moline, Paul McVey, turns to Nick Trayne, James Dunn — a retired private detective who now earns a living as a quasi-psychic and a trusted “listening ear” — to take the case. Nick is welcomed into a sprawling estate full of people who stand to gain or lose something from Craig’s disappearance, and the tension among them quickly becomes the engine of the story. The household includes Craig’s second wife Helen, Edna Johnson; his daughter Tina, Jan Wiley, and Tina’s fiancé Arthur Wallace, Howard Banks; Craig’s eccentric sister Delia Phillips, Minerva Urecal, and Delia’s husband George Phillips, J. Arthur Young; Craig’s old friend and former partner Tony Weldon, George Eldredge; the cheeky secretary Billie Hilton, Joan Woodbury; and Cedric the butler, Norman Willis. Nick quickly rules Billie out as a suspect and brings her on as his assistant, a move that stirs a cautious but growing partnership between the two.
Late one night Delia screams in the parlor when she discovers Craig seated upright, but there’s something unnerving about his posture: he resembles a zombie more than a living man. To understand this eerie condition, Nick consults the estate’s neurologist, Dr. Bruhling, Lawrence Grant, who suspects that Craig’s brain has been driven into a paralyzed cerebral state that could not have been self-inflicted. The diagnosis casts suspicion on someone nearby, and it becomes crucial to monitor Craig without pushing him into danger. In a subsequent inquiry in the garden, Nick finds George Phillips, the man Delia thought harmless, stabbed to death, with Craig standing near the crime scene. The evidence begins to sway the investigation toward Arthur Wallace as the killer, though the truth remains elusive and twisting.
As the night unfolds, Craig himself intrudes into Nick’s conversation with Billie, wielding a knife in a moment that could end Nick’s life. The scene confirms that Craig’s condition, whatever its cause, makes him unpredictably dangerous. With this precarious figure in their midst, Nick presses on to uncover how such a state could have been induced and whether the killer used any means beyond the knife to threaten the estate. Wading through a maze of motives and misdirection, Nick learns there may be a laboratory machine capable of altering Craig’s brain cells—an apparatus that could explain the sudden, dramatic change in the man’s behavior.
The trail leads Nick and Billie to a spooky, deserted house rented by a Dr. Carson; the storm outside heightens the sense of danger as they search the place with a flashlight. An ominous locked cellar door and a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere amplify the suspense. A moment of confession arrives as Nick speaks of his love for Billie, and Billie reciprocates, even as gunfire erupts from unseen assailants. They escape upstairs to encounter another man who appears to be in the same zombie-like condition as Craig, deepening the mystery of who is behind the brain-altering scheme.
Seeking answers, Nick questions Homer Hawkins, the property’s realtor, who reveals only that his contact with Dr. Carson was strictly by phone. With the help of Dr. Bruhling’s notes, Nick arranges a clever plan: he asks each estate member to record their voice so Hawkins can hear and identify the mysterious Dr. Carson. The security of the house and the estate hinges on this auditory cue, and the atmosphere becomes a battle of wits as the suspects try to outpace the truth.
When night settles again, two assailants—Tony and Helen—attempt to kill Nick in his bedroom. They are arrested, and the true motives behind their actions emerge in a climactic revelation. Tony Weldon had acquired a machine designed to paralyze Craig’s brain cells, a device that would give Helen control over the entire Craig estate. Tony’s crime is tied to a previous affair between Tina’s fiancé (and the family’s ever-present tension) and Helen, making the inheritance a target for manipulation. The plot thickens as Tony kills George after George witnesses him carrying Craig back to the house following the brain-altering procedure. The moral calculus shifts as Tina offers to pay the $25,000 reward to Nick, who has stood by Billie through every peril, allowing them to envision a future together.
In the end, the layers of deception unravel, exposing a web of jealousy, ambition, and greed that threatens to consume the entire estate. The two lovers, Nick and Billie, find a path forward amidst the danger and reveal a plan that aligns love with justice. The resolution hinges on the interplay between fear and loyalty, the fragility of memory, and the question of who truly deserves to control the estate after a family’s darkest hour. With the truth laid bare, Nick and Billie face the future together, strengthened by the trust they’ve built and the shared determination to build a new life beyond the shadow of Walter Craig’s disappearance.
