The handsome young man whose body was found in the Manhattan motel room had been murdered. He registered as Carl Lamb and wife, but Mrs. Lamb has vanished. His car is gone and so is his billfold, which according to the night clerk had been bulging with hundred dollar bills.

A New York model said he was Chester Loring, her husband of seven months. Then John Toyman, a toy manufacture, identified him as his salesman Christopher Lansing, who the year before had married to Jane Forsyth of East Hampton and Palm Beach. Jane heard the devastating news from her cousin Mike Heald. At first she couldn't believe that her devoted, ardent Chris had a criminal record and another wife.

Her rich uncle had been dead set against her marriage, but Jane refused to listen to him. And she had been happy in the shabby little apartment as long as Chris was with her. Now she had to find out for herself who and what her husband had been. Warned not to interfere, she plunges recklessly ahead into terrifying danger. Neither Mike nor the police can protect her until they find the motel murderer. There is an old proverb, “Every door has a slippery step,” but would such a clever killer make a slip in time?