Frank Gruber's amateur sleuths - Johnny Fletcher, the amazing book salesman, and Sam Cram, his strong-man sidekick - have a genius for getting into trouble. This time they go broke in a small Minnesota town and are thrown into jail for vagrancy. The next morning they wake up to find that one of their cell-mates, who later turns out to be Tom Quisenberry, grandson of wealthy old Simon Quisenberry, has been murdered in the night. In the confusion that ensues after the murder has been discovered, Johnny and Sam and also the fourth occupant of the cell, a fleet-footed tramp, break jail. Johnny and Sam realize that they will be held for murder if they are caught, so to clear themselves they take on the job of solving the murder, Their search leads them back across the country to the Quisenberry estate outside New York City, home of Simon Quisenberry's fabulous collection clocks, where they tangle with an odd and avaricious assortment of people.
