General Sternwood has four million dollars, and two young daughters, both pretty and both wild. Hes an old, sick man, close to death, but he doesnt like being blackmailed. So he asks private detective Philip Marlowe to get the blackmailer off his back.
Marlowe knows the dark side of life in Los Angeles well, and nothing much surprises him. But the Sternwood girls are a lot wilder than their old father realizes. They like men, drink, drugs and its not just a question of blackmail.