Donna Kress, a singer, is preparing a demo for a recording contract. She has been carrying on a long term affair with a married man, Frank Thatcher. That night Frank Thatcher is involved in a hit-and-run accident but does not report the incident. He is the son-in-law of Henry W. Dameron, a very wealthy businessman. To avoid publicity, Henry Dameron instructs Frank Thatcher to pay off the dead man's family anonymously. Frank uses Paul Drake to take care of the details. After Paul Drake speaks to the widow he uncovers the fact of the hit-and-run accident which Frank did not reveal. Later he confronts Frank Thatcher, a fistfight ensues, and Paul Drake is knocked unconscious. Later Frank Thatcher is found dead in the same apartment with Paul Drake after he wakes up. Paul Drake is accused of the murder when his gun is found to be the murder weapon.

A nasty actor with a lot of enemies is murdered. Perry gets his accused killer off the hook but then HE turns up dead and an aging, eccentric actress is blamed for that one. Are there two murderers on the loose or are both the work of one person?

Naive secretary Janice Wainwright carries out boss Morley Thielman's orders and places a briefcase containing more than $100,000.00 in a train station locker. Then she waits for the arrival of Thielman's ex-wife but Lt. Tragg arrives instead with an arrest warrant for Janice on the charge of murdering her boss. It seems as though witness Fred Carlyle saw a woman's shapely shadow through the shades of Thielman's office window shortly before the murder occurred.Carlyle believes the silhuette belonged to Janice. Perry manages to get to the bottom of things once the courtroom proceedings begin.

Della asks Perry for $25,000 for her friend Janet Brent, who is being blackmailed. Edward Franklin, an employee of Janet's husband, has staged compromising photos of her in a motel. At a party, Janet confronts Franklin and hits him with a small statue of a "weary watchdog." The police arrest Della when they find her driving Janet's car from the scene of the argument. Franklin is dead, struck three times on the head with the statue. Perry defends Janet knowing that if he loses, Della will go to prison as an accessory.

Perry's fishing trip to Scotland is interrupted by seven year old Peggy Smith. Peggy is living at a boarding school and searching for her identity since she has no idea who her real parents are. After searching into the matter, Perry comes to believe that Peggy is the daughter of Clark Lawson and Margaret Jeffers Lawson. Margaret was the daughter of wealthy Courtney Jeffers who disowned her after she eloped with Clark. Both parents died shortly after Peggy was born. Jeffers, a mean and miserable old man, has his heart warmed after meeting Peggy and changes his will to leave everything to her. The next day, he is found dead, killed by a blow from a poker.

Restrauteur Morey Allen, a friend of Perry and Della's, has a problem: his waitress, Dixie Dayton, was struck by a car while fleeing the restaurant after spotting a man stalking her. The only item she left behind was a moth-eaten mink. When the stalker is found murdered, Morey and Dixie are both strong suspects and eventually get arrested for the murder. The case also ties in with the murder of a young policeman several months before.

Ben Sutton is listed as the author of a best-selling book describing his experiences in a Korean POW camp. When the real author is released from an Army hospital, Sutton is slain before he can tell the truth and his widow is arrested for the murder.

Jim Ferris is having an affair with his uncle's bored young wife. They concoct a scheme to finagle $80,000.00 from the uncle by faking a kidnapping. Things go horribly wrong when secretary Betty Wilkins, acting as a go-between, is charged with the murder of Jim Ferris.

The foundations of a large company are shaken when the chief engineer uncovers evidence of budget tampering.

The Safeline Insurance Company notices an increase in heart attacks among their policy holders. The company suspects fraud and hires Perry and Paul to investigate. When Paul goes undercover as a construction worker, he almost doesn't survive the assignment.

An art dealer and his girlfriend are arrested for a two murders related to a series of hijacks. Paul goes undercover to ferret out the hijacking ring and Perry finds himself staring face down the barrel of a gun pointed by a killer even he never considered.

Gossip columnist Mary K. Davis is found murdered and it seems there is no shortage of suspects. There was her politician-husband to whom she refused to grant a divorce. There was her timid secretary whom she bullied. There was the secretary's boyfriend who had some secrets in his past. There was the doctor running an illegal baby-selling scheme whom Mary threatened to expose if he didn't give her a child. Leona Walsh, the doctor's nurse, ends up being charged with the crime and this time Perry has to tamper with some evidence in order to clear his client.

Perry has all kinds of troubles in this one when a murder brings him into the tangled financial and personal affairs of the wealthy Balfour family.

Perry goes on a fishing trip in a small Sierra Nevada town with his old friend, Sheriff Gene Norris but as usual manages to get sidetracked into another murder case when Phil Beecher returns from jail. It seems as though Phil did time for negligent homicide for the car accident which killed the daughter of Sheriff Norris. Charlotte Norris, sister of the decedant, wants revenge and frames Phil for a robbery but is herself killed. Can Perry prevent things from getting out of hand in the village?

DA Hamilton Burger asks Perry to defend an old friend who once saved his life in a boating accident ten years before. The old friend of Burger's is now facing a murder charge.

A journalist is murdered while tracking an ex-Nazi war criminal who may be posing as an executive at a company called Space Associates, Ltd.

Wealthy Walter Frazer has always blamed his daughter-in-law Sue Ellen for his son Gregson's failures. You can only imagine how he feels when Sue Ellen is accused of Gregson's murder.

Eleanor Corbin pleads amnesia after police find her running and screaming through the woods near her apartment building. Her loss of memory is of little help to her when she is later charged with murder.

Mason tries to clear his young, naive woman client, a corporate executive secretary, as a twisting and wheeling plot of murder, kidnapping, and embezzlement unfolds.

A judge is accused of murdering a government witness who planned to expose him as a crook.

Claire Olger is hitchhiking because her purse was stolen at the bus station and is picked up by Michael Greeley. He loses control of the car and has an accident due to his being intoxicated. Arriving at the scene of the accident, the police find Claire in the driver's seat. The district attorney's office questions her but do not believe her story about another driver. Her friend, Doris Stephanak, asks Perry Mason to help. When Perry is unable to contact Claire at her hotel, he goes there and finds Michael Greeley dead in her room. The police accuse Claire Olger of murder, realizing Michael Greeley fits the description of the man she claimed was driving the car and believe she had motive and opportunity.

Perry returns to his office late one night and finds an attractive woman climbing into his balcony window. She claims to be Virginia Colfax, the secretary of Ed Garvin who has an office next door to Perry's. Ms. Colfax says that she climbed into Perry's office in order to escape from Garvin's hot tempered wife but Perry later learns that Garvin is married to two women. Garvin and second wife Lorrie are sent to Mexico by Perry until he can clear up the matter but when Garvin's first wife, Ethel, is murdered there's an even bigger mess on the scene. And just who in the world is Virginia Colfax, the woman climbing in the window?

A double cross, a double murder, a plane crash, missing money, and yet another innocent widow charged with crimes she didn't commit are the elements of this case.

Author Mauvis Meade sends her secretary, Gladys Doyle, out to a mountain cabin to pick up a package. Gladys gets lost and her car gets stuck in the mud. She then walks to a cabin looking for help and encounters a mysterious man who appears to know her. While Gladys freshens up, the man leaves and Gladys discovers a dead body.

James Frazer wants a divorce and his cheating wife refuses to give him one. She's also stealing the plans to his invention in order to bait her engineer lover into staying around. Frazer leaves town for three months in order to cool down but on the night of his return he finds his wife murdered in his office and he has the only key to a unique burglar proof lock that he invented.