Twenty eight year old Jullian Penmark was a firebug who after a nervous breakdown spent five months in a sanitarium but that was three years ago. He now lived with his aged mother on a generous allowance from his late step father's estate. Five days ago he disappeared and his mother is afraid that he may have slipped back in to his old ways. Even so, she is reluctant to call the police and calls upon the help of Henry Simon's missing persons agency.