The celebrated sleuth’s father, retired Inspector Richard Queen, is called back to service to catch a devious black-market murderer.
When unmarried women get into trouble, A. Burt Finner is waiting at the hospital to save them. This greasy-lipped fat man knows all about babies: how to change them, how to feed them—and how to sell them to the highest bidder. He buys low, getting them from their distressed mothers just a few hours after birth, and sells high to millionaires who are unable to have children of their own. When one of these infants dies just a few months after its sale, the new family is shocked by the tragedy. Only the newborn’s nurse recognizes the death as murder.
 
The nurse reaches out to Inspector Richard Queen, the recently retired father of the legendary amateur sleuth Ellery. Given that his son is out of town, the inspector leaps at a chance to solve this chilling mystery on his own—only to find himself falling head over heels for the baby’s caretaker.