 The Commissioner of Recreation & Parks receives three life-threatening letters in one week, complaining about the method by which art is selected for museum display. When James Bellington enters City Hall with a breadbox-sized package and runs from a lobby policeman, he is apprehended, but the parcel only contains an alarm clock. Bellington is sent to Dr. Glover, a psychiatrist, who labels him a paranoid with homicidal or suicidal tendencies. Bellington delivers two shoeboxes to the art museum, but shows the bomb squad that they only contain art supplies. In a bistro, he tells an undercover policewoman that he plans to bring a dangerous device to the museum. When he arrives with his finger on a button atop a box possibly filled with explosive, police clear the museum. Then Bellington rendezvous with his confederates, art thieves, who have already replaced five paintings with his forgeries.