Thing has been acting a bit out of sorts, refusing to play the castanets, or play "fast draw" with the children. When Thing goes missing, Gomez puts on his deerstalker and starts grilling the family members. When that proves fruitless, Morticia calls the police, who suggest she run an ad in the lost and found. The ad, which gives their home address as 0001 Cemetery Lane, brings in lots of odd things, but not Thing. They receive a ransom note, so they call in detective Sam Diamond, a play on Sam Spade, to deliver the ransom.