The private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello is suddenly visited by his ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth. She asks him to prevent her newly boyfriend - Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann, a wealthy real estate developer, from being kidnapped by Mickey's wife and her lover. Following this case, Doc is found beside the dead body of Mickey's guard while Mickey dissappears, so Doc becomes a suspect and is brought to the police station.