Private investigator Tom O’Toole drives to Highbury, Connecticut, to see Angela Crispini about a court transcript she sent to him. Although Tom agreed only to discuss the case, Angela has set up an appointment to visit Felix Daniels, the convict she believes is innocent of murdering his uncle, Dr. Victor Daniels. Angela treats Tom seductively, and gushes over how he overturned State Prosecutor Charlie Haggerty’s evidence in an earlier kidnapping trial. Tom says his only interest in the case is that Haggerty tried to have his detective license revoked, and he wants another opportunity to humiliate him. On the drive to the correctional facility, Angela claims a cancer scare made her give up alcohol and sex, and now she feels “purified.” Tom, whose wife died three years earlier, says he has “mixed feelings” about sex. At the facility, Felix complains that his lawyer failed to properly defend him. Scanning the court transcript, Tom notes that the only evidence against Felix, a tooth from his comb found at the murder scene, was submitted days after the investigation and is therefore suspect. Tom agrees to help, but on the day of Felix’s hearing, Judge Lublonsky denies the young man’s appeal. Leaving the courthouse, Tom greets retired judge Harry Murdoch, whom he befriended during the kidnapping trial, and Murdoch invites him to visit soon. When Tom accompanies Angela to her apartment, he notices a photograph of her on a tropical beach, sitting on the shoulders of a man whose face is obscured. Angela, who has changed into a bathrobe, confesses that she knows who murdered Dr. Daniels, and so do the police, but they let him go. She needs more proof before she can name the killer, but in the meantime he should talk to Amy, a local “biker” girl. Tom objects to Angela withholding information, but she distracts him with sex. Later, Tom returns home, where his sister, Connie, has lived with him since his wife died. Around midnight, Angela telephones and asks him to return, but Tom says he will see her tomorrow. Connie tells Tom that Angela sounds “ditzy” and appears to be playing games. The next day, Tom visits Amy’s shack, next to an old cemetery, where two men with motorcycles are burning something. Amy says she and Angela used to travel to Bimini Island in the Bahamas together. Although Angela was supposed to let her know Tom was coming, Amy says she never called. At that moment, Angela telephones and tells him to stop talking to Amy. When Tom hangs up, Amy suggests he visit her boyfriend, Jerry, because he is the one who murdered Dr. Daniels. Amy explains that Jerry surrendered, but police brought him home, still bloody, and failed to charge him. Before Tom leaves, he goes to the cemetery and sees the burnt bones of an animal next to the plinth of the missing statuary. The name on the plinth is Major Jerome Seth McCall, who died in 1893. Tom drives to an abandoned mill, which Jerry has converted into a motorcycle repair shop. Jerry is not there, but in the middle of the shop is a religious shrine whose centerpiece is the statue of Major McCall, with metal angel wings attached. Suddenly, Angela steps out of the shadows and berates Tom for coming without consulting her. Angela’s speech patterns have changed, as if she has a different personality. Tom goes home and decides to forget the case, but as he reviews the trial transcript, he cannot see how Charlie Haggerty obtained a conviction based on the evidence. The next day he spies on the mill with binoculars and watches as Highbury police talk cordially to Jerry. That evening, when Tom stumbles upon Angela walking the streets and nursing a black eye, she does not recall confronting him at Jerry’s garage. Again, she seduces him, and as they kiss, a police cruiser pulls up, and Highbury Police Chief Bellanca glares at them. Later, as Tom and Angela make love at her apartment, a passing cruiser flashes a light through the window. The next day, Tom visits Charlie Haggerty’s office to announce that Felix retained him to find new evidence and reopen the murder case. Chief Bellanca mocks him for sleeping with, and taking the word of, a known prostitute, but Haggerty assures Tom he will not obstruct any “legitimate” investigation. When Tom visits Judge Murdoch, the older man agrees that Haggerty’s case was flimsy, but suggests that Tom forget about it, because Haggerty is running for state senate and will not let him overturn Felix’s conviction. Later, Tom asks Angela about her sexual history, and she retorts that her father raped her for years. She turns on him again, bitterly offering herself as a whore. Tom leaves in disgust, drives to Amy’s house, and convinces her to accompany him to the mill. They find Jerry welding his metal altar to Major McCall. Recognizing Tom from media coverage of the kidnapping case, Jerry shows him a Grand Army of the Republic knife, claiming the Civil War officer personally gave it to him. Tom takes Jerry and Amy to a diner for pizza, but the couple fights and Jerry wants to leave. Tom gives him his home telephone number before they go. When he returns to Angela’s, she is angry that he spoke with Jerry. She confesses that Dr. Daniels was her psychiatrist, and that they had a relationship. Again, Tom and Angela have sex. Later, Tom drives to the doctor’s empty house, goes inside, and finds the words “Jerry is God,” written in what seems like blood, on a wall. Returning home, Tom argues with Connie, who thinks his involvement with Angela has clouded his judgment. Suddenly, Jerry telephones and asks Tom to set up a meeting with Angela. However, Angela is afraid of Jerry, and explains that he ran drugs for Dr. Daniels, who was Highbury’s “main man” in the local narcotics trade. When Daniels reneged on his promise to finance the Major McCall church, Jerry went into a rage and killed him. Police cannot arrest Jerry because he knows too much about many important people in Highbury. Angela also confesses that she had a sexual relationship with Charlie Haggerty for two years. She tried to dissuade him from framing Felix, but despite his own reservations, Haggerty had to go through with it. When Tom accuses her of living in a fantasy, Angela slips into her other personality and shows him photographs of her and Haggerty together. One, a companion to the beach photo Tom saw earlier, shows Haggerty’s face. Angela tells him it was taken in Bimini, during a drug run. Later, Angela’s priest, Father Mancini, telephones Tom and invites him to the correctional facility to talk to Felix, who has lost hope and stopped eating. Tom assures the young man he will fight for his freedom. Later, he finds Angela in a diner, her face bruised. She says Haggerty came to her apartment, beat her, and searched for his old love letters. When Tom takes her home, Angela’s place is torn up, but she does not want Tom to hurt Haggerty. He returns to the mill, where Jerry says Judge Murdoch asked for an affidavit saying he killed Dr. Daniels. Tom convinces Jerry it would be a good idea, because the judge would defend him by showing that Daniels was a dangerous drug dealer. Then Jerry could complete his church with a free conscience. Jerry confesses that the only reason Dr. Daniels let him enter the house was that Angela accompanied him, and she was the only one the doctor trusted. They agree to drive separately to the judge’s house, Tom in his car and Jerry on his motorcycle, but on the way, Jerry has a religious vision and drives into the grill of an oncoming truck, killing himself. Later, Tom tells Angela he knows the truth about her being present when Jerry murdered Dr. Daniels, and that her testimony could free Felix. Angela, however, is not sure whether she was there or the murder was a dream. Tom convinces her to at least talk to Judge Murdoch. He sets up a meeting at the judge’s estate, and drops her off in his care. The next day, when Tom returns to Murdoch’s, the judge says that with Jerry dead, everything is under control. He is having lunch tomorrow with Judge Lubronsky, Felix is out on bail, and a new trial will exonerate him, so “that’s the end of it.” As Tom leaves, Angela gestures him into a nearby cottage to congratulate him on freeing Felix. When Judge Murdoch knocks on the door, Angela pushes Tom out the rear entrance, and as he looks back in, the judge and Angela kiss. Caterers and townspeople, including Felix and Haggerty, enter the estate to celebrate Felix’s release. Felix thanks Tom for his help, and Haggerty suggests he stay for a few drinks. Instead, Tom walks away.