The story opens during a tense poker game where Wally Wilson and his telepathic associates guard their minds against reading and manipulation. A messenger arrives from the powerful boss Joseph Barcelona, ordering Wilson to arrange a specific and impossible outcome for the upcoming Kentucky Derby using three terrible horses. Shortly after, Lieutenant Delancey of the police arrives, warning Wilson that authorities are watching for a psi-based fix. Wilson realizes he is caught between criminal extortion and police surveillance, with his reputation and freedom on the line.
To survive, Wilson formulates a plan that relies not on illegal psi manipulation, but on the predictable mechanics of human nature, greed, and the obsession with inside information. He leaks the rigged outcome to a compulsive petty thief named Gimpy Gordon, knowing the rumor will spread. As the information circulates, thousands of hopeful bettors flood the mutuel windows to back the longshot horses, convinced a secret fix is in motion.
By Derby Day, the massive influx of public money drastically alters the track odds, turning the impossible longshots into heavy favorites. Barcelona realizes he has been outmaneuvered when twenty thousand angry bettors stand to lose everything on his own horses. Trapped by the very trap he set, Barcelona begs Wilson to stop the disaster.
Wilson forces Barcelona to scratch the horses from the race and refund the bettors out of his own pocket to avoid a violent riot. With the crisis averted and his innocence preserved, Wilson claims his victory and secures the affection of Nora Taylor, proving that human nature remains unchanged even in an age of telepathy.
