1. The November Plan (1)

Jake Axminster is a hard-boiled, wise-cracking private eye in Los Angeles during the 1930's. Mary Kingston hires him to prove her innocence. She is being framed for murdering her boyfriend, and the police are seeking her whereabouts. Jake hides her in a beach house and begins his investigation. He discovers that Mary and her boyfriend witnessed a man's murder at a party on the previous night, and she fled but her boyfriend was captured and killed. The man murdered at the party was a reporter who was about to publish a story of some importance, concerning the date of November thirteenth. Jake attempts to talk to the wealthy man who threw the party, and barely leaves the estate alive.