Why Can't They Smell My Son's Stench?

When his son Leonard Chester breaks his leg, a father rushes to the old apartment the young man shares with his university roommates. From the doorway he is hit by a foul, rotting stench, yet Leonard and his roommates insist there is no smell at all. When he offers to clean the place, their hostility flares, and a quarrel ends with him dead on the floor.

He wakes at the very same doorway, the stench again filling his nose. A hospital checkup confirms his sense of smell is normal, and his tests with perfume, fermented herring and ripe blue cheese only deepen the puzzle: the roommates detect those scents instantly but never the odor clinging to Leonard. Gifts and a lavish dinner fail to soften them, and any mention of a thorough cleaning provokes fresh anger.

Certain now that something is being hidden in the house, he resolves to uncover the truth about his son before the quarrel can repeat itself.