A young woman is raped and strangled on a Los Angeles beach. Further down the coastline a young boy is shot and arrested for her murder. Quincy doesn't think that it would have been possible for the boy arrested to strangle the woman and decides that he is going to go out and begin a little investigation of his own. He visits City Hall where the woman worked to ask some questions and, after a little checking, finds out that there seem to have been a rash of unexplained deaths there.
Margo Bently is writing her first book, the contents of which could prove very damaging to a certain group of people. She is murdered and brought into the lab as a suspected alcoholic prostitute with cirrhosis but Quince thinks the body is telling him something different about her social standing.
Quince is asked to present a seminar in Bufflo NY by Asten, while he's preparing his notes Asten takes over in the lab. In Quincys absence, Asten signs the body out to a phoney coroner and Quincy begins tracking her down. This leads him to a murdered literary agent in New York a race to autopsy him before he's cremated so he can prove a link.
Roberta Rhodes, a famous movie star, is found dead in her bedroom. The police think that it was probably suicide, but Quincy thinks not. A gossip newspaper editor approaches Quincy and tells him that on the night of her death his friend, and prospective senator, Congressman Charles Sinclair was with her. Quincy cannot believe that his friend could have killed Roberta but if he didn't then why does he keep lying to Quincy?
A couple of cat burglars break into a Mexican museum and steal $4 million dollar's worth of jewels. Sealing them in the floor of their boat they sail to California with the intention of fencing them there.
Once there one of their crew tries to steal the jewels but is caught. Alex, the main burglar, poisons him with the venom of a fish and dumps him into the harbor.
Unfortunately for him Quincy and Lee are nearby and are called to help the dying man. Quincy not only gets there to help him but manages to save his life as well. He cannot at first work out what happened to the swimmer but is soon convinced that not all is what it seems.
