Bernie Rhodenbarr is actually trying to earn an honest living. It´s been an entire year since he´s entered anyone´s abode illegally to help himself to their valuables. But now an unscrupulous landlord´s threat to increase Bernie´s rent by 1,000% is driving the bookseller and reformed burglar back to a life of crime -- though, in all fairness, it´s a very short trip. And when the cops wrongly accuse him of stealing a priceless collection of baseball cards, Bernie´s stuck with a worthless alibi since he was busy burgling a different apartment at the time . . . one that happened to contain a dead body locked inside a bathroom.
So Bernie has a dilemma. He can trade a burglary charge for a murder rap. Or he can shuffle all the cards himself and try to find the joker in the deck -- someone, perhaps, who believes that homicide is the real Great American Pastime.