In Los Angeles, California, police sergeant Vince Newman and his African American partner, Garry, arrest a drug dealer named Jaycee. After Jaycee tips them off about a drug supplier named Johnny Dell, they raid Dell’s home without a search warrant, and find the man’s corpse and a crate full of narcotics. When Dell’s telephone rings, Newman accepts an overseas phone call from Frank Lo Falcone in Naples, Italy, but Falcone hangs up at the sound of Newman’s voice. An African American man named Baines tries to flee Dell’s house, but Newman shoots him in the knee and they engage in a fistfight. As police arrive, Reardon, the police chief, sends Newman away, tending to Baines, himself. District Attorney Jack Eastman learns that Dell’s house was rented by one of Frank Lo Falcone’s corporations, and the police coordinate with Italian forces to arrest Falcone. When Baines is determined “dead on arrival” at the hospital, Reardon blames Newman for beating the man too hard. Newman agrees to meet with Beutel, a former police officer, and Johnny Dell’s uncle, John Dellanzia, at a restaurant. Dellanzia, an Italian gangster and rival of Falcone’s, offers Newman $10,000 to find Dell’s murderer, saying he does not believe his nephew trafficked drugs for Falcone. However, Newman refuses to associate himself with Dellanzia and rejects the money. Later, an exhausted Newman gets a phone call from the nursing home where his father lives, alerting him that he owes money and that his father might be evicted. When Falcone arrives in Los Angeles, he reprimands Quist, a corrupt police officer who sent Baines to steal Dell’s drugs after the murder. At Baines’s autopsy, it is determined that he died from a blow to the head, further suggesting that Newman was too rough, but Newman insists he was not. Jaycee reveals to Newman and Garry that Quist was one of Johnny Dell’s cohorts; however, Newman’s investigation is stopped short after police find illegal drugs in his apartment. Newman is arrested, and a career criminal named “Pants” Squillachiotti informs police that Falcone paid the nursing home bills for Newman’s father, suggesting the two are in cahoots. Outraged, Newman says the drugs were planted and that Pants must have been paid to lie by Falcone’s gang. Newman is suspended from the police force, and Garry defends his partner’s spotless record to Reardon. Garry later suggests to Newman that they become private detectives or bounty hunters so that they will no longer have to put up with institutional corruption. Continuing to investigate Falcone on his own, Newman is followed and beaten by Dellanzia’s thugs, who believe he is working for Falcone. Bloodied and bruised, Newman interrupts a dinner party at Eastman’s home to tell Eastman about Quist. Eastman’s aide, Frank Acker, says the investigation is over, explaining that Falcone has taken a plea bargain and will be sentenced for possession of the narcotics found in Dell’s home. Both Acker and Eastman believe that Newman accepted money from Falcone, and suggest that his thirty-day suspension is a lenient penalty. Newman insults Eastman’s dinner guests before he leaves, and Acker calls after him that he is fired. From the top of a water tower, Newman spies on Falcone’s heavily guarded Los Angeles home, spotting Quist and Falcone by the pool. Using a sniper rifle, he fires several shots to scare the group and waves at Falcone’s guards. That night, Newman visits his father’s nursing home after hours, and a gang led by Quist shoots at him from outside the building. Newman escapes, leading the gang on an automobile chase that ends when they crash into a supermarket. The police arrive, and a shootout ensues. Garry is shot dead as Newman joins the police in pursuit of Quist’s gang. Quist runs into Reardon in an empty aisle and asks him for help, but Reardon shoots him after telling him to run away. Newman finds it suspicious when Reardon does not want to call an ambulance for Quist, suggesting they let the traitor bleed to death. Newman recalls that Baines died mysteriously from a minor gunshot wound after Reardon oversaw his transportation to the hospital, and suspects Reardon of foul play. After Reardon goes for a doctor, Quist utters his final words, saying that Reardon was “bought.” Newman sneaks Quist’s dead body out of the building and delivers it to Dellanzia, announcing that Quist was Dell’s killer and demanding the $10,000 that Dellanzia offered him earlier. Newman takes the $10,000 to Garry’s grieving wife, Edie, then sneaks onto Falcone’s property, gunning down several armed guards as Falcone gives Reardon a suitcase full of money inside the house. After Newman shoots Reardon dead, Falcone retaliates by shooting Newman. However, just as Falcone walks away, Newman fires back and kills the gangster. Police arrive on the scene and an ambitious young officer tends to Newman moments before he dies.