Inspector Holloway is investigating a series of brutal murders in which a doll of each victim is found at the scene. The dolls, as it turns out,were purchased by the crippled Mrs. Von Sturm, whose home is overcrowded with a doll collection. Her pale, wide-eyed, neurotic son is the prime suspect and the daughter of one of the victims discovers the shocking truth.

It’s tough beat for San Francisco police lieutenant Jake Martin (Walter Matthau) when he has to investigate a city bus massacre in which a madman opened machine gunfire on eight people.