Teenager Frederick French is attending a trial in his father's courtroom when a gunshot is heard and the plaintiff falls dead in a pool of blood. Amidst the confusion, Frederick catches a glimpse of someone who may be the killer and who appears to be a hunchbacked dwarf. He decides to play amateur detective to try to get to the bottom of who killed the man and why, but the list of suspects is long: the victim's grieving widow, a phony medium, a...