Warren Barrow writes mystery novels under a pseudonymn. He sends his publisher a series of tape recordings that appear to detail either the plot of his next mystery novel or the plan for a murder he is actually going to commit. Using his own name on the tapes, Barrow describes how he renewed a friendship with a very attractive girl named Janet West. Janey, however, is married and wants someone to kill her wealthy husband. Blinded by passion, Barrow agrees to commit murder. At the last minute, however, he gets cold feet and later, out of guilt, decides to kill Janet. The tape ends, however. The publisher and another writer, Tom Keller, become convinced that Barrow is planning murder. The publisher calls the police while Keller heads for Janet's apartment. At the apartment, Keller discovers Janet dead and Barrow holding the murder weapon. Barrow is taken to the police station where he provides an ending to his novel and a complete confession, all on tape.

Andrew Anderson is an advertising executive who discovers the body of his deadwife laying at the bottom of the basement stairs. An investigating detective named Sgt. Cresse believes Mr. Anderson is guilty of murder. He wants to trick him into making a confession by making Mr. Anderson believe that his wife is still alive and that she is having an affair with one of his fellow workers at the advertising agency. Eventually Mr. Anderson is proven innocent of murder, but Cresse's hounding has left him hopelessly insane.

David Chesterman is a thief whose girlfriend Maria is cheating on him with his partner Carl Gault. Carl has fallen in love with Maria and plans to get rid of David. He tells David about the body of rich man who is loaded with jewelry. David goes to rob the corpse, but is discovered by a guard. Later, the guard is found dead by the police. David tells Maria that he is innovent, but he decides to hide out for a while and leaves Maria with Carl. Carl informs the police of David's location and he is arrested for murder. As David is about to be sentence Maria gets away from Carl by stabbing him. She heads to the court building convinced that David is innocent. In the court building she climbs out on a ledge and threatens to jump unless David is brought to her and is allowed to tell the truth about the entire robbery. David is brought to her, but he reveals that he did kill the guard. Knowing that he will go to prison, David begs her for forgiveness.

Medical student Skip Baxter has an alcohol problem and a practical joke playing roomate named Doc Carroll. Doc wants Skip to quit drinking and cooks up a scheme. He takes a cadaver from the medical school morgue and dresses it to look like a waitress named Ruth. He then puts it into Skip's bed as he is sleeping off a hangover. When Skip wakes up, he sees the body and becomes convinced that he committed murder in an alcoholic stupor. He wraps the body in a rug and disposes it. When he returns to school, he finds out that Ruby is alive and that Doc has gotten into trouble for stealing a cadaver. Skip agrees to replace the body to get skip out of trouble. At the next anatomy class, the professor reveals the replacement cadaver to be the body of Doc Carroll.

Gerald Swiney, a henpecked husband, decides to get rid of his nagging wife, Edith, when she won't agree to a divorce. He intends to drive her away by making her think he's planning to kill her, but things don't go exactly as planned.

Grace Renford is a wealthy and attractive woman who is interested in meeting a man who will love her, not for her money, but for what she is. So she pretends to be a middle class woman after corresponding with a young engineer named Keith Holloway, who she met through an ad in a spiritualism magazine.

Marcia Fowler accuses a neighborhood boy named Roy Bullock of being a peeping Tom. Roy denies it and manages to ingratiate himself with Marcia's husband, Jack, and her lonely stepson. When Marcia gets an obscene phone call she tells Jack that it was Roy, but he denies it. Later, after Jack goes away on a business trip, Marcia confronts Roy after receiving another obscene phone call and becomes fearful that Roy is crazy when he tells her that his mother was just like her.

Donnelly Rhodes (as James Bellington) Lonny Chapman (as Lt. Wymar) Lou Jacobi (as Dr. Glover) Neile Adams (as Sgt. Louise Marklen) Jess Kirkpatrick (as Thomas Grindley) Sandra Gould (as Secretary) Betty Harford (as Woman in Museum) Harold Ayer (as Salesman) Police become suspicious of an unsuccessful artist named James Bellington after a city commissioner of parks and recreation recieves a series of bomb threats. Bellington tries to met the official. Since he is carrying a box that might be a bomb, the police stop him. They discover that the box only contains art supplies. Later, at an art museum Bellington is again stopped for carry a suspicious package whcih turns out to be harmless. The police force Bellington to see a psychiatrist and Bellington tells the psychiatrist that his next bomb threat will be real. The police stop a bomb carrying Bellington at the museum. He gives everyone in the museum ten minutes to get out and they do.

Howard Clements is wrongfully accused of assaulting a woman named Isabel Smith. He is convicted of the crime and is sent to prison for two years. When he gets out of prison he steals $13,000 which is the exact amount he would have earned if he had not been in prison. He then opens a record store in his hometown. He meets Isabel a few times and manages to get a date with her. Eventually the two become engaged. On their honeymoon, Howard sabotages the fuel line of the boat they rented and convinces Isabel to take a ride on it solo. Later, Howard gets hiw revenge when he hears an explosion in the distance. As he returns home, he is stopped by the police who know about his theft and also suspect him of murder.

Nell Snyder has been taking care of her orphaned neice and has been growing more and more concerned over her neice's behavior. Her neice continually blames all the trouble she causes on an imaginary friend named Mr. Peppercorn. When the girl's grandfather Captain King Snyder gives her a Creole voodoo doll, Nell grows more and more worried. Her nieces says the doll came from Mr. Peppercorn. She names it Numa and treats as if it were a real person. Eventually, Nell becomes convinced that the doll is real and that it is trying to take her neice's soul. She follows her neice and Numa into the forest. There she frightens her away, not realizing that the switch has already occurred. She later sees the doll and discovers that it bears her neice's face.

Joe Brisson is a crooked land developer who is shocked when his wife Lisa informs him that she wants a divorce. Lisa tells him that she wants three-fourths of his extensive holdings or she will go to the police with evidence of his shady land deals. Joe refuses to pay and convinces his wife's boyfriend, Bobby Davenport, to kill her in return for the cancellation of a large debt. Joe heads off to Europe on a cruise ship. Before leaving he tells Bobby that he will call Lisa from the ship at a certain time. When Lisa goes to answer the phone, Bobby will kill her. Everything goes according to plan, but when Joe is hanging up the phone a man enters his cabin. He shoots and kills Joe after telling him that he was hired by Lisa.