Following up a missing person’s report, Detective John Cabrera visits the boarding house of Dorothea Puente. She is friendly and cooperative, but after Cabrera discovers a body in her backyard, Puente gives him the slip and goes on the run.

While Detective John Cabrera digs into Dorothea Puente’s dark past, she is plotting her next move from an L.A. motel room – until a tip-off leads to her arrest. She is flown back to Sacramento to be prosecuted for nine counts of murder.