Nero Wolfe, a passionate collector of orchids, a great gourmet, a lover of beer, and a brilliant detective, practically never leaves home. He solves all crimes based on the facts collected by Archie Goodwin—his charming, ironic assistant with an excellent memory.
A neighbor’s boy, Pete, comes to Wolfe. He tells of a woman in a “Cadillac” with a scratch on her cheek and gold earrings shaped like spiders who asked him to call the police, because the man in the passenger seat is threatening her with a pistol. The next day Pete is hit by a car. Before he dies, the boy manages to ask his mother to give the detective everything in his piggy bank—four dollars and thirty cents. Wolfe is forced to take up the search for the murderer…