Sally Jordan is a Honolulu heiress who is forced to sell a valuable set of pearls. The pearls are sold to Wall Street financier P.J. Madden through a local jeweler named Alexander Eden. The plan is to deliver the pearls to Madden in New York City. Charlie Chan and the jeweler's son Bob are selected to make the delivery.

Charlie and Bob learn that there has been a change of plans and the pearls will now be taken to Madden's ranch in the California desert. Charlie is suspicious and decides to send Bob ahead to the ranch without the pearls while he arrives later disguised as a Chinese cook.

After arriving at the ranch, Bob and Charlie find a very nervous P.J. Madden, a bilingual parrot and evidence of a possible murder. The only thing lacking is a corpse. Because of the odd circumstances at the ranch, Charlie decides it is wiser to solve the mystery of the suspected killing before handing over the pearls. While Charlie and bob stall for time, Madden's caretaker Louie Wong is murdered and the parrot dies of arsenic poisoning.

THE CHINESE PARROT was produced as a silent film by Universal in 1926 with the role of Chan played by Kamiyama Sojin, a Japanese actor. George Kuwa, another Japanese actor, was cast as Louie Wong.