With Sheriff Mayberry out of town, Sheriff's Department inspector emeritus, Walter Stroud (Lloyd Nolan) heads up the investigation of a San Francisco woman's murder at a local motel. Good cop / bad cop issues arise when all clues lead to Clarington Award winning Sunrise University research scientist Emil Kroger (Nehemiah Persoff) who is a paragon of the community and also the developer of the medication regimen that saved Inspector Stroud's life. Will Stroud continue to suppress evidence (for the greater good of society) when a second young woman is murdered? Undeniably great cast struggles with far-fetched plot. Ii's hard to believe that a dedicated altruistic researcher would resort to serial murder so late in life.