Marc Spewack, a New York private eye, is hired by an ageing industrialist, Wolf, in downtown Cranville, to trace three missing girls of the town.
All three were blondes and their mysterious disappearances had become an election issue: Wolf, an undertaker named Esslinger and a gangster called Starkey, have set their sights on becoming mayor of Cranville.
It turns out that Esslinger had hired Audrey, a gorgeous private detective operating solo in Cranville, with the same intention of tracing the missing girls. While Audrey and Marc take potshots at each other, another girl, Marian, disappears.
The time has now come for joint operations, especially when Marc comes to know that Starkey’s illegitimate daughter, Edna, is Wolf’s mistress. And Audrey, herself, is now marked for murder....