Nancy Drew's latest involvement in a mystery begins in her home town and concerns a synthetic sapphire with a spider embedded in it, and the strange disappearance of Ned Nickerson.
A brass-bound trunk mistakenly delivered to Nancy's cabin on a New York-bound ocean liner becomes the first clue leading her to suspect that international jewel thieves are aboard.
Nancy and her friends establish headquarters in a seaside yacht club to investigate strange happenings in a book store and the disappearance of a marble statue.
Braving a series of dangerous situations, Nancy attempts to solve the mysteries of a singer being cheated out of royalty payments and a buried treasure to which the only clue is half of a locket.
While helping the police find the owner of a mysterious house with a crooked staircase and an unpredictable robot, Nancy Drew, teen detective, also helps capture a swindler.