In 1939 Los Angeles, private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by glamorous heiress Clare Cavendish to find her missing lover, Nico Peterson, a prop master at Pacific Film Studios. Marlowe quickly learns that Peterson is dead, apparently having fallen down drunk before a car accidentally ran over and crushed his head outside the exclusive luxury Corbata Club that caters only to the city’s elite. Marlowe is refused entry and gets into a fight with gardeners when he tries to sneak in. His friend, homicide detective Joe Green, is not interested in reopening the case and encouraged Marlowe to accept Peterson’s death. He visits Cavendish at her home to tell her of Peterson’s demise, also meeting the studio’s owner, Philip O’Reilly, the soon-to-be Ambassador to England. Cavendish reveals she saw Peterson drive past her while in Tijuana since his supposed death. Annoyed at her withholding this information, Marlowe goes to leave, running into Cavendish’s mother, film star Dorothy Quincannon, who fails to learn what service Marlowe is providing to her daughter. Marlowe visits Peterson’s grave and encounters a mourning woman leaving him a note but she escapes before he can talk to her. Marlowe convinces Green to open a murder investigation now they know the body was not Peterson’s. Green admonishes Marlowe for his relentless pursuit of the truth and reveals that the body was identified by the Corbata Club owner, Floyd Hanson. Marlowe meets with Hanson at the club, the pair failing to extract information from each other. On his way out, Marlowe notices the woman from the grave, Peterson’s sister Lynn, and clandestinely agrees to meet with her at the Cabana club later that evening; their discussion is observed by Hanson. When he arrives, Marlowe is assaulted by two men but beats them unconscious. Quincannon meets Marlowe to unsuccessfully try to hire him to find Peterson for her instead. She reveals that her contentious relationship with her daughter is because she spent many years pretending Cavendish was her niece on the advice of O’Reilly, her former lover. Quincannon’s former private investigator had learned that Peterson was also acting as a talent agent for actress Amanda Toxteth. Toxteth tells Marlowe that Peterson was a serial womanizer and regularly imported cocaine from Tiajuana. Out of leads, Marlowe breaks into Peterson’s house and encounters Lynn before the pair are attacked by two Mexican men looking for someone named Serena. Marlowe is knocked unconscious while Lynn is taken captive. After waking, Marlowe is taken by drug lord Lou Hendricks and his henchman Cedric. Hendricks reveals he is after Peterson, his former drug courier, who stole a large amount of cocaine, and the Corbata helped fake Peterson’s death. Marlowe has his officer friend Bernie Ohls begin searching for Lynn, while Cavendish visits Marlowe to seduce him; he rejects her advances but shares a dance before she leaves. Marlowe secretly follows Cavendish to a rendezvous with O’Reilly, and runs into Quincannon who shares her anger at her daughter’s relationship with the much older and powerful O’Reilly. The following day, Ohls takes Marlowe to Lynn’s discovered body, revealing she was tortured and raped before being killed. Ohls traces the Mexicans to the Corbata club and gives Marlowe his unofficial support to infiltrate the club and avenge Lynn.Marlow confronts Hanson who offers him a drink, but suspicious Hanson poisoned it, Marlowe throws it away and feigns that he is dying. Convinced he is dead, Hanson has his men take Marlowe’s body through the hedonistic areas of the club to a secret area where the Mexicans have been killed, Hendricks is being tortured, and Cedric has been restrained. Under torture, Hendricks reveals that Serena is actually the mermaid statue Peterson placed in the adjacent fish tank and it contains the missing cocaine. Marlowe frees Cedric and the pair kill Hanson and his men, inadvertently destroying the mermaid and the drugs. Cedric also kills Hendricks after being told he will be indebted for years to repay the value of the drugs. Cedric decides to work with Marlowe so they can look out for each other. Marlowe returns home to find Peterson waiting for him. Peterson admits he does not feel guilty about Lynn’s death because of her association with him, and asks Marlowe to tell Cavendish to meet him in the studio prop house for information he has gathered about O’Reilly. The fake Peterson was a musician who resembled Peterson. Peterson meets Cavendish and reveals his extensive records of every drug deal performed through the prop house with Hendricks, believing it will destroy the reputation of the studio and O’Reilly. As Marlowe arrives, Cavendish betrays Peterson, shooting him and setting both him and the evidence on fire, immolating the prop house, intending to use this deed to earn favor with O’Reilly and become vice president of the studio. She offers Marlowe a job as the studio’s head of security but he declines, instead recommending Cedric.
