On a fishing trip to the town of Wrightsville, Ellery and Inspector Queen are dragged into the case of the murder of a wealthy man who was whacked over the head with an ornamental dog figurine meant as a wedding gift for his daughter and worth nearly half a million dollars. It seems as though two rival candidates for sheriff want the Inspector to solve the town's first murder in decades so that they can grab the credit.

Ellery himself is a leading suspect in the murder of a comic book publisher with whom he'd clashed over how he was portrayed in the publisher's comics. It seems as though the man left a dying clue which apparently points to him. Ellery is forced to investigate in order to clear his name. Ole Frank Flannigan is on the scene too trying to steal some of the glory.

A boxer is killed while training for a championship bout and the finger points towards his sparring partner, Joe Adams. Joe's girlfriend, Corrinne Ogden, seeks out Ellery for help in clearing her boyfriend's name. Ellery accepts the challenge of proving Joe's innocence but it seems that the dead boxer had nearly as many enemies as Bugs Moran. Making things even more complicated is the fact that good old Frank Flannigan is also on the scene trying to beat Ellery to the solution.

Heeeeeeeeeeere's Ed. Ed McMahon, that is, who plays a once brilliant but now seemingly senile inventor who is murdered in his electric train workshop. This one's a toughie because it appears as though no one could have entered or left the workshop during the time in which the murder must have taken place.

The Queens investigate when a wealthy industrialist and war profiteer is stabbed to death with a Chinese ceremonial dagger and then dragged out of his house and hung from a tree with a crown of thorns placed on his head. Just like one Judas Iscariot. As usual, plenty of suspects abound and when it's discovered that the victim was dying of acute lymphoma the plot only thickens.

Ellery and the Inspector travel to Hollywood in order to watch the filming of an adaptation of one of Ellery's novels into a movie. At the studio, they meet the actors who will be portraying them. Gilbert Mallory, the egotistical no-talent assclown slated to play Ellery, is found murdered and once again there's little rest for our weary heroes.