Silent movie star Marcus Rollo is reported dead. At his poorly attended funeral, an elderly mourner places Rollo’s silver-tipped cane on his casket. As the gathering disburses, Vera Brownmiller, a young woman observing the scene, steals the cane. After seeing off the woman who placed the cane on Rollo’s coffin, an aged mourner rushes back to the gravesite to retrieve it, but he is too late and watches as Vera drives away. Some time later, private detective Shep Stone returns to his Venice, California apartment building with flowers for his girlfriend, Cynthia, but finds her preoccupied with Miss Francis, her lesbian lover. Upstairs, Vera is murdered by a man who steals the cane. Noticing suspicious movements at Vera’s door, Stone enters and finds her dead. Her killer attacks him with the cane. Although Stone fights back, the man escapes. Later, Stone provides little that might identify the culprit to his former colleague, police detective Billy Bowen. Frustrated, Bowen complains that Stone has not been working to his potential since his sister died of a drug overdose and he was put on probation for strangling a dealer. Stone claims that with three days, two hundred dollars and a gun, he will solve the case of Vera’s murder and Bowen reluctantly agrees. The next day, Stone learns from his informant at a local newsstand that Vera was an actress in adult movies and he goes to the set of a pornographic film to find her producer, Max Majors. Majors claims that he hired Vera as a favor to Marcus Rollo. When Stone leaves, Majors receives a phone call. He reports that Vera’s killer, Chess, took Rollo’s cane into his possession and informs his contact that Stone is tracking the murder. Next, Stone visits Miss Francis. He warns her against pursuing his girlfriend, but Miss Francis says that Cynthia is indebted to her for her career. When Miss Francis offers Stone $500 to leave Cynthia, he threatens to publicize her presence at the apartment building during Vera’s murder. Later, Stone is approached at a bar by Raymond Dole, who hires Stone to find his missing daughter, Amy. Stone searches for Amy at an evangelical church frequented by young drug addicts. Reverend Avery says he asked Amy to leave because she was resistant to conversion, but Stone bribes the reverend and learns of her past residence. At the café, Amy’s former lover, Lindy, tells Stone that she left him for Chess. Lindy suggests that a criminal named Worm might lead Stone to Chess, and, later, Stone finds Worm and chases him into a tree. Despite his reluctance, Worm gives Stone contact information for Chess, but on his way to the apartment, Chess is shot by a sniper. After finding Chess dead, Stone disassembles the cane and notices it is hollow. Next to a photograph of Amy is a note written in her hand, imploring Chess to “come back to Jesus.” Outside, the elderly gentleman from Rollo’s funeral pays off the sniper and breaks into Chess’s apartment to retrieve the cane. As the gentleman drives away empty-handed, Stone follows him and discovers that he is, Talbot T. Talbot, a tarot card reader. Talbot tells Stone that he was a close friend of Vera and he introduced her to Rollo. He offers to buy the cane, but Stone demands to know why Vera was killed. When Stone destroys one of Talbot’s prized possessions, a signed photograph of Sarah Bernhardt, Talbot anxiously confesses that Rollo was a courier, but he is too afraid to reveal for whom he was working. Back at the bar, Stone is forced to give up the cane when he and his bartender friend are held up at gunpoint. Retuning to Talbot, Stone finds the old man shot dead. Beside Talbot is a party invitation from Miss Francis. When Stone returns home, Cynthia lures him into her apartment and they restore their relationship. Later, at Miss Francis’s party, Stone encounters Majors and his girlfriend, Diane Davis. Diane offers to pay him $50,000 for the contents of the cane, but when he declines, he is held at gunpoint by Majors and his henchmen. Stone escapes, but his pursuers cut power to the elevator. Climbing out the top, Stone lowers himself to the ground on a post and pries open the doors just as the lift descends upon him. After fighting off one of Major’s henchmen, Stone leads a car chase through the streets of Venice and returns to Reverend Avery’s parish, where he demands to see Amy. The next day, Stone calls Dole to a baptismal ceremony on the beach so he can be reunited with his daughter. When Amy rejects Dole, Stone tells her that Chess is dead. Stone presumes that Amy is Chess’s hiding place for the contents of the cane. He baits the girl into turning over Chess’s heroin by claiming that her boyfriend confessed to the theft and warns that the police are coming for her. Amy argues that Chess intended to sell the drugs for funds to promote Jesus. When she runs away, Stone is detained by congregation members, but they scatter with the arrival of the police. Meanwhile, Dole chases after Amy. As she falls into Reverend Avery’s arms, Dole pulls her away, shoots the reverend and continues the pursuit while Stone catches up. Dole rips the heroin from a strip around Amy’s waist and aims his gun, but Stone tackles him, grabs the drugs and runs away, dodging Dole’s bullets. The men fight on an abandoned pier as Bowen and police officers rush to the scene. Despite Bowen’s protests, Stone throws Dole into the ocean and the police retrieve him. When Stone gives Bowen the heroin, the detective explains that Dole was an infamous moneylender and Stone concludes that Rollo was forced into selling narcotics to repay his debts. That evening, Stone returns home with flowers for Cynthia, who receives him warmly.