Fast-footed, fast-witted Johnny Fletcher in at the kill twice in the eccentric affairs of Simon Quisenberry, the clock king, and his family. There is the matter of a completely mortgaged estate, of the death of the grandson to whom the Talking Clock had been left, and a houseful of hatreds. Another murder -- and the Talking Clock does its part in solving both. Quicksilver doings, with scatterbrained and hot-fisted activity on all sides.