 Alfalfa s Aunt Penelope (Martha s sister) comes to visit the family. She has given up her latest pursuits as a sculptress and has decided to become a writer of murder mysteries. That night, John and Martha go out to attend a meeting and leave Alfalfa in Penelope s care. Alfalfa stumbles upon a loose page of Penelope s story which is written in the form of a letter; it says "only my nephew stands between me and the Switzer millions" and that he will be murdered at the stroke of nine. This leads him to believe that his own aunt is plotting to kill him! To make him even more terrified, he catches Penelope reading a book about famous murders. Alfalfa tells Penelope that he s going to bed and then summons the gang for help. Meanwhile, Penelope continues her work on her murder mystery. Buckwheat goes down into the kitchen to hide away all the knives, while Porky dumps out all of the poisons in the bathroom. While getting rid of the poisons, Porky makes a sudden racket, which leads Penelope to believe that the house is being burglarized. While searching the house, Penelope catches certain members of the gang running around the house, and she terrifies them with her blood-curdling screams. Alfalfa s parents finally come home, and the kids proudly tell the adults that they saved Alfalfa from murder. Angered, Penelope decides to leave the "madhouse" immediately. After the whole situation is explained, Alfalfa feels that he owes her an apology. However, John is so overjoyed that he rewards Alfalfa with a dollar bill just for getting rid of her!