Plot

Maxine Lindsay, aspiring artist and model but naive, becomes embroiled in a law suit about whether a painting is a fake. She repeats the comments of Colin Durant about the painting. Durant is found shot in her shower, so she is charged.

Art student Maxine Lindsay, as the guest of her mentor, art dealer Colin Durant, attends a reception aboard the yacht of millionaire Otto Olney, who is unveiling his newest purchase, a $130,000 Gauguin. When Durant confides that the painting is a fake, Maxine becomes involved in a complicated series of deceptions. Soon gallery owner Leslie Rankin threatens Maxine. Perry Mason is consulted by Rankin wanting to sue Durant. Perry suggests instead that the owner sue to keep Rankin's name and business out of the news to which Rankin and Olney agree. When Durant confronts Perry at dinner, Perry realizes he has been had. In trying to track down Maxine, Perry and Della go to her apartment but the manager says she has moved out. Hearing the shower running, Della looks for Maxine but finds Durant shot laying in the shower. A beatnik artist who uses Maxine as a model is accused of painting a fake which he does not deny as it is in his apartment. A gun turned in from the lockers at the bus station where Maxine was seen is Maxine's pistol and the fatal weapon.—Anonymous