Mitsou Kamuri calls her close friend Toma Sakai to help her. She found in her home a string of pearls she believes belongs to her boyfriend Grove's stepmother Thelma, and she doesn't know what to do. As Toma offers to return them, Grove's father Hudson and private eye Edgar Beals burst in and take a picture of them hugging. Hudson has Mitsou arrested for stealing the valuable string of natural pearls, and Perry Mason is hired--by Hudson Nichols--to defend her. Nichols' primary purpose seems to be to end Mitsou's engagement to his son Grove but there is also the question of whether the pearls Mitsou supposedly stole are cultured or natural and only Mitsou's uncle, Ito Kamuri, would be able to make the replacement pearls. Ito Kamuri is found dead in a scene that was made to look as if he committed ritual suicide. When the police and Perry determine that he was definitely murdered, Mitsou is accused of the crime and Perry defends her.
—garykmcd