 Dr. Marshall Cahill, head of a scientific think tank, is proud when his son, Neil, is nominated for high honors for his discovery of a revolutionary theory. But fellow scientist Howard Nicholson knows that Neil, driven by his father s incessant browbeating, plagarized his theory from a deceased mentor. Rather than let Nicholson expose and ruin his son, Dr. Cahill murders him and makes it look like a burglary gone wrong. Enter the cigar-chomping Lieutenant Columbo, whose seemingly blurred eyes immediately picks up clues that will demolish Cahill s carefully planned killing.