At the El Encanto hotel in Santa Barbara, California, Richard Bone shaves and dresses while a woman watches him from bed. Before he leaves, Bone asks for cash, lying that he needs to pick up medicine for a sick friend. Driving in the rain, Bone’s car breaks down in an alley, and another car pulls up behind him. The driver emerges and dumps the dead body of a girl into a garbage bin, unbeknownst to Bone. As the driver speeds away, Bone attempts to flag him down for help, to no avail. Abandoning his car, Bone walks past the garbage bin but does not notice the corpse inside. At a nearby bar, Bone finds his friend, Alex Cutter, a disabled Vietnam War veteran wearing an eye patch. Cutter drunkenly offends several black people with racial slurs, while Bone apologizes for his behavior. Bone takes his friend’s car keys and leaves him at the bar. That night, Bone drives the car to Cutter’s house and chats with his wife, Maureen "Mo" Cutter, who is also drunk. Though Bone compliments her, Mo remains aloof. In the morning, George Swanson, a boat salesman and Bone’s boss, drops off Cutter and two policemen soon follow. Bone answers the door, and the police take him in for questioning, having found his abandoned car parked by the dead body. At the station, Bone insists he did not see the suspect who dumped the body well enough to identify him. Attempting to coerce more information, the policemen introduce him to the victim’s sister, Valerie Duran. Outside City Hall, Cutter meets Bone and shows him a newspaper headline naming Bone as a murder suspect. They watch a parade pass by, and Bone identifies a man riding a horse, oil tycoon J. J. Cord, as the man he saw in the alley. However, when Cutter presses him, Bone reconsiders and repeats that he did not see the suspect clearly enough. At lunch, Mo tells Cutter and Bone that Cord’s car was burned the night before at the marina, and Cutter becomes further convinced that Bone’s hunch was correct. Later that night, Cutter informs Mo and Bone that he learned more about the murder victim that day, including the name of the nightclub where she was last seen; he also tracked down Cord’s whereabouts around the time of the murder. The next day, Valerie suggests to Cutter and Bone that they threaten Cord with Bone’s eyewitness account. Bone rejects the idea but invites her to go sailing. On the boat, she tries to seduce him, but Bone resists her. He tells Valerie that he is not interested in challenging a powerful man like Cord, whether or not he is guilty. Bone later changes his mind and agrees to help Cutter and Valerie deliver a blackmail letter to Cord’s office. When Mo expresses her disapproval of the idea, Cutter strikes her. Though Mo tells Bone this is not the first time she has been hit, Bone warns Cutter never to do it again. The next morning, Cutter packs a gun and other items into a small bag and leaves with Bone and Valerie. They drive to Cord’s office building where Bone plans to drop off the letter. At a nearby pier, Bone confesses that he still has the letter, telling Cutter that their game of trapping Cord is over. Unfazed, Cutter takes the letter, vowing that he and Valerie will deliver it themselves. Bone goes back to Cutter’s house, where he and Mo spend the day together. When Bone tries to kiss her, Mo stops him, saying she doesn’t want to lose his friendship; however, Bone convinces her she has nothing to lose and they make love. Later that night, Mo asks Bone if he meant it when he said he loved her. She admits to feeling apathetic and confused about her emotions, and asks Bone to stay with her for the rest of the night, but after she falls asleep, Bone slips out. The following morning, Bone makes coffee on his boat, and his boss, George interrupts him, frantically looking for Cutter. George and Bone then take Cutter to his house that is now burned to the ground. At a mortuary, Cutter identifies Mo’s corpse. Later, while watching George compete in a polo game, Cutter tells Bone that Cord must have burned down his house in an attempt to kill Bone. When Bone responds that Mo was very depressed the previous night, implying that she committed suicide, Cutter gets up and storms onto the polo field, shouting that Bone is responsible for his wife’s death. Sometime later, George confronts Bone about Cutter’s fixation on Cord, who is a friend and mentor to George. He warns that Cutter is putting himself in danger and needs to forget about Cord. Bone goes to George’s guesthouse, where Cutter is staying, and Cutter presents him with his new hypothesis that Cord killed George’s father many years ago to gain control of the marina. Afterward, Cord helped George pay for college and set up his business, pretending to take care of the boy when he was really maintaining control over him. Cutter produces an invitation that George received to a party at Cord’s house that day. Armed with a gun, Cutter sneaks into the party with Bone’s help, but Mrs. Cord quickly spots the interlopers and sends security guards after them. Bone fights the guards off so that Cutter can escape, and the guards deliver Bone to Cord’s office. Meanwhile, Cutter mounts a horse in Cord’s stable, and rides through the party. By the house, he jumps off the horse and crashes through Cord’s office window. Covered in blood, Cutter dies just as Bone accuses Cord, saying, “It was you.” Cord responds nonchalantly, “What if it were?” Bone then places the gun in Cutter’s lifeless hand and shoots Cord.