An accountant working for a notorious racketeer is murdered while talking to Mike Shayne on the phone. Police believe that the man was carrying a list of all of the racketeers business contacts, but the only thing the man had in his locked briefcase was a copy of "Alice in Wonderland". Although Captain Gentry finds no evidence that the list was hidden between the books pages, a thug kidnaps Shayne's secretary and orders Mike to steal the novel from the police or else the pretty blonde will be killed.
—David Bassler