Eccentric millionaire Rachel Bruner arrives at Wolfe's doorstep with an extraordinary offer, a disturbing story of harassment, and an FBI tail. Only after Wolfe takes the case does a murder comes to light. As the story unfolds, however, it becomes clear that the Bureau is not guilty - in this case, anyway - and their reluctant cooperation is essential to capturing a killer.
Archie is standing in for a friend at a party for unwed mothers when one of the guests drops dead. Through she had often talked about killing herself and was known to carry cyanide, Archie does not believe her death was suicide. A little digging uncovers the connection that proves his hunch, and Wolfe helps bring the killer to justice.
Archie is arrested for impersonating a police officer while investigating the death of a woman who had stayed briefly at Wolfe's brownstone. Wolfe comes to the aid of his headstrong assistant, and they eventually expose a scheme to steal a fortune that someone feels is worth killing for.
While Archie is upstairs trying to convince Wolfe to meet with a prospective client, someone is in the office making sure she won't be able to tell her story.
The Manhattan Flower Club's next visit to the brownstone proves fatal for one of the members. Fortunately, she talked to Archie just before she died, and one clue from their conversation proves critical.
Wolfe needs a new orchid man, and goes on an adventure to find him. Only to find a murder scene at his destination and no way of retrieving the horticulturalist without first solving the mystery.
Archie Goodwin is engaged to Margot Dickey, and attends a formal get-together with her on Christmas Eve. Present is a bartender in a Santa Claus outfit, who vanishes quietly shortly afterwards.
Archie Goodwin is surprised to discover Nero Wolfe has a daughter, who becomes entangled in a murder at a fencing studio. But is she really his daughter?
A women arrives at the brownstone to say that Wolfe's long-lost adopted daughter has been falsely accused of robbery and needs his help. By the time Archie arrives at the scene - the fencing studio where she works - her name has been cleared in the robbery, but there is a fresh case to investigate. And another muder on the way. .
Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret love nest. He is arrested when she turns up dead.
Wolfe has to testify in the murder trial of Leonard Ashe. Worried that his testimony will convict Ashe, Wolfe does some investigating of his own and discovers a blackmail scheme.
After Wolfe refuses Richard Meegan's request to find his runaway wife, Archie finds a body at Meegan's home. A dog follows Archie home after being at the scene of the crime. Can this hold the key to the puzzle?
A model frames Archie for the murder of a delivery boy, who was supposed to bring him Wolf's specially picked corn, and Archie doesn't have an alibi. Who killed the delivery boy and why?
A baby is left on a widow's doorstep with a note implying that her late husband had been its father. The widow, Lucy Valdon, hires Wolfe and Archie to find the true mother, but soon the case turns deadly.
A lecherous producer is killed at a dinner prepared by Fritz. The suspects include the five waitresses, but no one knows who gave him his food.
After Thomas Yeager hires Archie because he believes he's being followed, he winds up dead at a construction site. Wolfe and Archie's investigations show that the victim had many lovers.
The gangster Dazy Perrit wants to keep his daughter's identity a secret so he hires a stand in to pose as her. But when the stand in blackmails him, he turns to Wolfe and Archie for help.
After Wolfe turns down a request for help, the man is murdered. More troubling than that is that now Wolf is the one being threatened. In order to buy some time, Wolfe hires a body double, but will that be enough to keep him safe until he finds the killer?
Wolfe and Archie investigate the murder of the Head of the Bureau of Price Regulations, who was about to speak before the National Industry Association.
Two illegal aliens flee a barbershop when a New York City cop begins asking questions. When the cop turns up dead, Wolfe must clear the two of his murder.
Wolfe is asked to cook his famous baked trout for an oilman and an Eastern European ambassador. But when Archie finds a body in the trout stream, Wolfe must solve the murder first.
Nero Wolfe is consulted by a boy, a street kid named Peter Drossos, who makes a profession out of wiping the windshields of parked cars with a rag. While wiping one car in particular, he sees a woman wearing golden spider earrings mouth "Help, get a cop"
