Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is hired by wheelchair-bound General Sternwood to discover who is indulging in a petty blackmail. A weary old man, Sternwood just wants the problem to go away. But Marlowe finds he has his work cut out just keeping Sternwood's wild, devil-may-care daughters out of trouble as they prowl LA's dirtiest and darkest streets. And pretty soon, he's up to his neck in hoodlums and corpses...