Los Angeles, 1930s. A rich old man who knows trouble when he sees it hires a detective agency to scare off a young woman who seems to be making his adopted son hemorrhage cash. Fortunately for the detective, a hard drinking man named Philip Marlowe, trouble is his business.

The young woman, Harriet, has an agenda all her own and aspirations beyond being a shill for a gambler. She's nobody's fool. Nor is the old man, for his part. He's got serious muscle--a chauffer with a degree from Dartmouth, the only Black student from his class, who knows his way around a gun and isn't afraid to use it.

Right in the middle of it all is a big pile of money. And when the bodies begin to drop, only Philip Marlowe can sort out which of these suspects is pulling the trigger.