Arriving amid a thunderstorm, they are greeted by a police detective who tells them Ebeneezer Laurel did not die a natural death, and that the duo, along with the other potential heirs who have gathered, will be held on suspicion of murder until the crime is solved.

Assigned to spend the night in the very room where the body was found, Stan and Ollie experience a series of terrors: a pair of glowing eyes (a cat), ghosts (bedsheet-draped furniture), and a bat.

Worse, screams are heard throughout the night as, one after another, the assembled relatives mysteriously disappear—in each case after being summoned by the enigmatic butler into the study to answer a telephone call.

A fight ensues, but the scene dissolves as Stan and Ollie abruptly awaken from their nightmare to find themselves scuffling with each other at the dockside and tumbling into the water.

Leroy Shield's tunes by now were featured in Hal Roach's Our Gang series, and had been tried in a few previous Laurel and Hardy films.