Bulstrode Mulliner moves to Los Angeles to try to strike oil. By accident, and through Mr Schnellenhamer's strength of personality, Bulstrode is signed up to work on the script of Scented Sinners for the Perfecto-Zizzbaum Motion Picture Corp. He is thrown into the company of fellow 'writer' Genevieve Bootle and they become close despite disliking each other. Then his fiancée and Genevieve's man arrive ...
| Mr Mulliner | the narrator |
| Miss Postlethwaite | barmaid at the Angler's Rest |
| Bulstrode Mulliner | Mr Mulliner's nephew from New York |
| Genevieve Bootle | a bootlegger's girl |
| Mabelle Ridgeway | Bulstrode's fiancée |
| Mr Schnellenhamer | head of Perfecto-Zizzbaum |
| Miss Stern | his secretary |
| Ed Murgatroyd | a bootlegger |
| Mr I. G. Levitsky | co-executive of Perfecto-Zizzbaum |
First published June 1933 in the Strand magazine.
