The story is told in Flashback (narrative) from Death Row as Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) relates to a group of reporters the events that lead to his murder conviction. Jackson is a San Francisco baby photographer who dreams about being a real private detective like his office neighbor Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd). One day he is mistaken for a detective by mysterious lady in distress Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour), who claims that her wheelchair-bound husband was kidnapped at the pier as they arrived from overseas. A sinister figure (Lorre) listens at the office door. Carlotta gives Ronnie her address, and a coded map. Ronnie hides the map in the cups next to his office water cooler. Ronnie then drives to the address, which is a mansion down the Peninsula. Kismet (Peter Lorre) greets him at the door. Carlotta tells Ronnie that the missing man is her uncle, not her husband. He entered the country on some secret mission, she says. The mansion belongs to Major Montague, she says, who was a former partner of her uncle. Major Montague enters the room, and calls Carlotta away for a phone call. Major Montague also believes that Ronnie is a private detective, as he had Kismet follow him from the office. When Carlotta is out of the room, Montague tells Ronnie that Carlotta is mentally ill. He introduces Ronnie to a wheelchair-bound man in the next room as Carlotta's uncle, who tells Ronnie that he obviously has not been kidnapped. Ronnie tells Montague that Carlotta had given him a map to hold. Carlotta reenters the room, and when alone with Ronnie, tells him that the call was from her uncle, who told her he was safe. "He was forced to make that call", opines Carlotta. Now she suspects Montague, because he lied to Ronnie about her. She tells him to guard the map with his life.