Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by a Kansas woman named Orfamay Quest, who desperately wants him to find her brother Orrin. As Marlowe follows Orrin's trail to a hotel, he meets the manager, Hayden Glossen, and a guest named Grant W. Hicks, who deny any knowledge of Orrin's whereabouts. After Marlowe has investigated Orrin's former hotel room, he finds Glossen murdered with an ice pick and a page missing from the register book. Soon afterwards, Marlowe receives a call from Hicks, who nervously implores him to hold onto something for a day. When Marlowe arrives at his location, he finds Hicks with an ice pick buried in his neck, and a masked woman who manages to escape; Hicks is also revealed to be a former mob runner. After these events, Marlowe begins to suspect that there is more to this case than a mere missing person.