Against the background of the Civil War, sixteen-year-old song-and-dance artiste Lotta Crabtree works her way across America, becoming ever more popular.

A San Francisco airplane bound for South America crashes, and among the scorched debris is found a shrunken native human head, neatly packaged. The perplexed police contact a local anthropology museum about this unclaimed piece of grisly baggage, where they intersect with Jack and Doc, two private eyes, called there to meet a mysterious woman who had a case for them and wanted to meet in private.

A newsman tracks down a phantom killer of murder-trial jurors.

In San Francisco, detective partners Jack Packard and Doc Long are hired by socialite Jefferson Monk who believes someone is following him with the aim to kill him.

US Marshall Vance is assigned to rid the Oklahoma Territory of outlaws.

Under therapeutic hypnosis, a seemingly well-adjusted young woman tells a fantastic story, verified by lie detector, of her forgotten marriage to a man who disappeared on the day of their honeymoon, and of her search for him which takes her to a lonely mansion in a remote section of swampland tenanted by snakes, alligators, a drunken one-armed lout, a mysterious doctor, and a cold-hearted elderly woman who lives alone in a brooding manse.

An Australian sheep man comes to Montana looking for grazing space, is opposed by local ranchers and a wealthy cattle-woman.