The story opens with Nancy tending her prize delphiniums when a mysterious carrier pigeon lands in her yard, causing her to contact the registry for the birds. Meanwhile, housekeeper Hannah Gruen takes a fall and must be treated at the local orthopedist's office. The attending physician, Dr. Spires, later confides to Carson Drew and Nancy that he was forced to tend an elderly woman for her shoulder - the drivers of a car blindfolded him when they drove him there, so he wouldn't be able to guess her location, leading him to believe the patient was a prisoner. The only clue to her identity is a bracelet with a family crest, and the doctor's belief that she was being held on Larkspur Lane. Nancy, of course, immediately sets out to track the crest, discovering that it belongs to the Eldridge f