After Paul Hagen learns a good friend is killed in San Francisco, he leaves Idaho to investigate. But California authorities aee suspicious and begin to suspect Hagen of committing the murder forcing Hagen to clear himself.
Hagen and Palmer find themselves with a reluctant client when cosmetics tycoon Claudette Gideon decides to retire and turn her company over to her estranged daughter, Laurie.
Linda, a deaf and mute young woman innocently finds herself in the middle of a murder case. All the circumstantial evidence is predictably convincing, but the skeptical Hagen immediately takes to the scent of the real killer.
A research assistant is arrested when her estranged spouse is found murdered during a time she was blacked out. Hagen is suspicious of the accused boss who experiments with mind altering drugs.
A jewelry shop owner hires Hagen, to track down thieves in a $2 million jewelry heist. An actress witnesses the robbery and decides it's an opportunity to obtain publicity for herself.
Hagen is seriously wounded by a patient from a mental hospital who just escaped. The assailant is accused of poisoning her stepmother and roomate just as she did her stepson which led to her incarceration.