- An elderly nurse visits Perry for advice but leaves not listening. Later, she arrives at the police station to confess to killing a columnist who is using a book she stole from a doctor to blackmail him into giving her a baby of her own.
- Influential columnist Mary K. Davis desperately wants a baby in order to keep her diplomat husband, Ralph Davis, from leaving her for another woman. She enters the office of Dr. George Barnes and nurse Leona Walsh to steal a book of the doctor's adoption records. She will return the book if Dr. Barnes will provide her a baby which she has told her husband she is expecting in order to keep him. After visiting Davis at her home to plead for the book, Leona consults with Perry Mason for advice. Dr. Barnes runs a hospital where single women who are pregnant enter under the alias of the woman who is going to adopt the baby. Dr. Barnes then generates false birth certificates under the false names. The book contains all the records on such births. Mary's secretary visit's Mary's lawyer, Eugene Jarech, who then visits Perry hoping to share the information in the book, illegally. When Mary K. is murdered, Leona confesses to the crime, and Perry must cut a Gordian knot of intrigue to get at the truth.—richardann
- Dr. George Barnes (Arthur Shields) and nurse Leona Walsh (Josephine Hutchinson) arrive at their Seaside Clinic in the wee hours of the morning, and are surprised to notice a car already parked there. They find the door to the office bolted, but are finally let in by an intruder, gossip columnist Mary K. Davis (Marian Seldes). They realize she has stolen a book of patient records from the office, but before they can do anything about it, Mary pulls a gun on them. She says the only way they'll get the book back is if they give Mary a baby. She's told everyone, including her husband, that she's pregnant. Mary gives Barnes and Walsh until 10 AM to accept her terms.
Back in her own office, Mary prepares the story, based on the patient records, that she'll publish if she doesn't get her baby. Mary's assistant Connie Cooper (Ruta Lee) is shocked, but Mary puts her in her place by threatening to make public the terrible secret of who is the real mother of Connie's fiancé, Bob Shroeder (Don Garner). Mary reveals that she's adamant about her plan because her supposed pregnancy is her only way of prying her husband Ralph (Philip Ober) away from his girlfriend. Dr. Barnes calls, and Mary gives him another 24 hours.
Later, Laura Walsh visits Perry's office and asks him to recover the record book. She admits that she and Dr. Barnes have been arranging off-the-books adoptions of the children of single mothers, not for money but to provide good homes for the children. Perry explains that he can't simply steal the book back from Mary, so Laura leaves in frustration. Perry tries to call Mary Davis, but Lt. Tragg answers. Mary has been murdered. Later on, Tragg and D.A. Burger are discussing the case in the latter's office when Laura enters and confesses to the killing.
Perry is frustrated with his client's actions, but nevertheless pursues every avenue of investigation that he can. This includes talking to Connie and Bob, but they aren't much help. Connie blames herself for much of what has happened, as she had naively confided what she knew about Barnes' operation to Mary. The ever-trusty Paul Drake is more helpful. He has pored through trash to recover an envelope that Mary had addressed to herself under her maiden name at another address. It seems she ruined the envelope and had to do a new one, discarding the one Paul found. Perry learns that the address is of an apartment that Mary had recently rented, obviously as a place she could mail the record book for safekeeping.
Perry guesses that the book hasn't been delivered yet, so he sends Della to rent the apartment (as Mary has failed to pay the latest weekly rent). When the mail carrier arrives, Della follows Perry's instructions to avoid identifying herself as Mary, then tries to hide the package within the apartment. (Perry doesn't want it found, but doesn't want to involve Della in interfering with the mails either.) However, a noise a bit like pottery being broken interrupts her, and she hides behind a door from an intruder. We only see the shadow of an arm holding a gun, which is then withdrawn. Della runs out the door, taking the package with her in her panic. Back at Perry's office, she's afraid her actions will get her sent to jail.
Mary's lawyer, Arthur Jarech (Berry Kroeger), has duplicated some of Perry's reasoning and comes to offer Perry the opportunity to share the blackmail possibilities created by the record book. Perry rejects the offer with scorn, and Jarech says he'll go to the D.A. Perry takes the record book to Dr. Barnes, and pointedly leaves him alone with it while he gets a drink of water. Barnes takes the hint, and burns the book.
In court, it's clear that Jarech went through with his threat, as Burger puts Della on the stand and begins to question her about the intercepted package. However, Perry stops every one of Burger's questions with a laundry list of objections, including the old standbys, "assuming facts not in evidence" and "incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial". The judge (Morris Ankrum), commenting that these "mere technicalities" exist to protect the constitutional rights of the accused, sustains every one of the objections. Burger will be forced to produce the proper chain of evidence through a laborious process, so he asks for an adjournment.
Back at the office, Della is still fretting about what happened at Mary's apartment. She mentions the something-breaking sound that alerted her to an intruder, and Perry has a brainstorm. He and Paul go back to the apartment building, where the manager shows him the junk he had removed from Mary's room when she missed a rental payment. It includes a number of broken dictaphone cylinders and a dictaphone machine. The broken cylinders aren't of much use, so Perry hires an actress (who seems a little too attractive for Della's taste) to record a new cylinder, copying Mary's voice. She has barely left when Tragg comes in and seizes the dictaphone, broken cylinders, and new fake one, as stolen evidence. It turns out that there was an anonymous tip that Perry had a recording that would solve the case.
In court, Burger presents these items as evidence, despite Perry's assurance that they are incompetent, etc. As he starts to play the one intact cylinder, Connie jumps up and screams that they have to stop it. She admits she killed Mary, but they must not play that cylinder. She tells Bob that she didn't want his mother's secret revealed, and ended up killing Mary in a struggle. Bob says they could have lived with it. Ralph Davis and Perry also express their sorrow over Connie's unfortunate actions.
In the wrap-up, we learn that Bob's mother was a murderess who gave birth while on the run from the law. Tragg enters and mentions that Burger is planning on charging her with 2nd degree murder, since there was a struggle. He also says that Burger realizes the source of the "anonymous tip" and would like to charge Perry with something. However, Tragg pointed out to the D.A. that Perry had correctly told him the cylinder wasn't proper evidence. The lieutenant reveals the formerly intact cylinder now in pieces to show how mad Burger got. However, says, Tragg, the D.A. shouldn't get mad: "He missed me by nearly two feet!"
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