In late 1930's Los Angeles, California, a brooding, down on his luck detective Philip Marlowe is restless and lonely. Business is slow, until a new client turns up in the PI’s office: the daughter of a Hollywood actress. Young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson.
Marlowe sets off on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Slowly, he develops an appreciation for how far the family will go to protect their fortune.