- A criminal who was sent to prison by Superman and the Planet staff goes to the Planet office and tells them of his intention to go after them. They respond that Superman will stop him. Only problem is that he wears a lead mask to conceal his identity and he has other men wearing the same mask. Eventually he captures all of the Planet staff and puts them in a perilous situation and Superman has but minutes to save each one of them.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
- Daily Planet receptionist Ethel (Yvonne White) is startled by a visitor (Michael Fox, Dr. Hoxie on "Perry Mason") who wants to see Perry White. She calls Perry, who interrupts chewing out Jimmy to shout at her for her inability to say what the visitor looks like, but decides to have him come to the office. Ethel's difficulty is understandable, as the man is wearing a lead mask. He reveals that he's out for revenge against Perry, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy for articles that have ruined his rackets. He has ten other men wearing masks, all the masks are locked to prevent Superman removing them, and he has the only keys. When he leaves, Clark follows him outside, and sees that there are indeed numerous identically dressed and masked men going this way and that. He relates the problem to Inspector Henderson, but neither of them has a good way to proceed. Meanwhile, Perry, Lois, and Jimmy determine to defy the threat and carry on as usual.
Perry and Lois get in a car to go to a political luncheon. One of the masked men (Steve Mitchell) is in the back seat and pulls a gun. He forces Lois to drive to a cabin outside of town, where they meet the leader of the criminals. Perry thinks they're foolish, since he and Lois now know the location of their hideout. The leader challenges his ability to remember the route, so Perry recites it, not noticing that he's being recorded. The crooks call Perry's office and play the tape to Jimmy, who writes down the directions and heads out.
Clark and Henderson confer, noting that the three others are now missing. Clark decides to let himself be captured with the police tailing him. When he gets to his office, a masked man is waiting for him, but instead of taking him out the door into the police trap, he brings Clark up to the roof and away via helicopter. Soon, the crooks have Clark suspended above a vat of acid. Clark feigns disbelief that they'll carry out their threat. ("It's against the law!", he whines.) This causes the leader to brag about his plans, inspired by old-time cliffhangers. Perry is tied to a log in a sawmill, soon to start cutting him in two. Lois is tied to railroad tracks, and Jimmy is driving on a mountain road in a car with brakes and steering that have been treated with acid. The villain, assuming Clark will never live to tell anyone, is rather specific about the location and timing of these traps. He starts the mechanism to lower Clark, and he and his henchman leave just as Clark enters the acid. They're gone by the time Superman emerges from the vat, sopping wet but of course unhurt.
Henderson has called out the entire Metropolis Police, but has no idea where to look for the kidnapped journalists. At the sawmill, a timer starts the mechanism designed to kill Perry, but Superman arrives and stops it. Next, he frees Lois from the tracks just before the Southern Pacific Midwestern Flier reaches her. Jimmy loses control of his car when the brakes and steering fail, and it goes flying off a cliff. Jimmy managed to jump out, but had his eyes closed and jumped in the wrong direction, leaving him dangling from the edge of the cliff. The Man of Steel arrives just in time to save him from falling. Superman says that now he'll need to track down the criminals. Jimmy replies that shouldn't be hard, and hands him the directions to the hideout from "Perry's" phone call.
Back in Perry's office, Henderson relates to the Planet staffers how Superman used his x-ray vision to spot the masked man with the keys - the leader. He adds that all the crooks will be in prison for a long time. In their jail cell, the main henchman wants to talk to the leader about how they saw Clark Kent go into the acid. The leader stops him from finishing the thought, saying it's too unbelievable.
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