Connie Blair has returned to Philadelphia and is sketching the salvaged wallpaper for a Reid and Renshaw client at the old Calder mansion which is being renovated.
She hears about the last resident, Carrie Calder's skinflint manner from Lance Hurley, a photographer documenting the house. Montgomery Calder, who inherited the house from his deceased aunt, Caroline, tells Connie that six valuable queen porcelain figurines have disappeared that had been bequeathed to his cousin, Maryanne Jessup.

Connie learns from Earle Fillmore, aunt Bet's friend who dabbles in antiques that the queens had ruby hued crowns which were never reproduced. She's locked in the basement of the house while searching for the queens. Andrew Drake, the office manager for the Calder Insurance Company lets her out. He gets angry when she tries to explain why she was in the basement.

Connie asks a policeman if he's seen anyone suspicious around the house. He says he saw a man planting bulbs in the flowerbed. Mr. Butterfield takes over for Happy Wallace, an architectural student, while he is completing a deadline, apologizes for locking her in the basement. Connie attends a fraternity dance with Happy, searches the house the next day and finds a torn obituary notice in the basement, it gives her a clue as to who stole the queens.

Nellie, Carrie's maid, asks Connie to dig up a small bush for her. During their conversation Connie realizes where the missing queens are located. When the workmen have left, Connie goes outside to retrieve the queens from their hiding place. As she is recovering them, she is attacked and the culprit's identity is exposed. Maryanne to makes a donation to the S.P.C.A. as a way to pay Connie for recovering the missing ruby queens.