The ''National Mirror'' is a tabloid publication that reports primarily on unexplainable phenomena. The editor, Vartan Malt, receives a story tip about a woman living with an angel in her house in a small town in Iowa, and decides to send three staff members to investigate. He chooses Frank Quinlan, Huey Driscoll, a photographer and owner of the ''Mirror'' star Sparky the Wonder Dog, and Dorothy Winters, hired by Malt to eventually replace Driscoll.