 In Outcast, CA, newcomer Bob Lansing encounters strange, hostile reactions. At the request of Dr. Kennedy, headmaster of the orphanage where he was raised, Bob is there to look up Frederick Bell, who has been sending anonymous donations to the orphanage for several years. Bell denies this. Suspicious, Bob returns to Los Angeles and consults Perry Mason. From old newspaper accounts, Bob thinks he may be the son of notorious bank robber Lynn Aberdeen, who killed two deputy sheriffs. Curiously, Bell was a clerk in the bank when it was robbed. Now Bell works for the town s richest tycoon, Tom Quincy, who is having an affair with Bell s wife Vivian. Bell is found dead with Bob leaning over him. Bob is arrested, and the outlook is indeed ominous.