After preparing a bath, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Sian Barbara Allen) is alerted by her nurse, Betty Gow, that her baby is not in its crib.
They check with Charles Lindbergh (Cliff DeYoung), reading in his study, that the baby is not with him then immediately go to the nursery and discover an envelope near the window.
Inside the house, the envelope is opened and Lindbergh reads a letter indicating his child is in good care and future communications with have a distinctive signature with three holes in the paper.
The press quickly descend on the house and the police are angered when a reporter attempts to gain a statement from Lindbergh.
In New York City, concerned citizen Dr John Condon (Joseph Cotten) decides to write to the Bronx Home News newspaper to offer himself as an intermediary in the ransom exchange.
Condon receives a reply from the kidnapper and telephones Lindbergh, giving him confirmation that the letter has the unique signature with three holes in the paper with a demand for $70,000.
By November 1933, New York City detectives are tracing Gold Certificates, contained in the ransom money, that are now entering circulation.
The attendant had been notified to watch out for ransom banknotes and wrote the car licence plate on a gold certificate he received.
The car was a brown Plymouth Sedan and is identified as belonging to Bruno Hauptmann (Anthony Hopkins), resident in the Bronx.