Under the pretense of business documents for the family's business that need to be taken care of, Nick Charles (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) are pressured into going to the country home of Colonel Burr MacFay (C. Aubrey Smith) for the weekend. They soon discover that there is more going on than they were told, and that there is a mysterious man threatening Col. MacFay. When Col. MacFay is murdered, the prime suspect is this mystery man, Phil Church (Sheldon Leonard), a big city thug who has taken a vacation house near the MacFay mansion. However some things just don't add up and Charles soon discovers that almost everyone seems to have had a motive for murder.