"A bright, shiny tin can in a dark, cobwebby corner of the cellar preserve shelf -- unlabelled and empty! Mrs. Gentrie, the meticulous housewife, was annoyed but not too upset. Her sister-in-law Rebecca was excited and suspicious. Delman Steele, their new young boarder, was quietly interested... Then things began to happen. A man and his housekeeper were found missing from the house next door. Willful old Elston Karr, confined to a wheelchair in the flat above the missing man's apartment, retained Perry Mason to protect him from -- well, Mason wasn't quite sure himself. Then he heard about the empty tin can. It interested him -- a lot." --