''Los Angeles Times'' undercover reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher (who writes as "Jane Doe") is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beaches of Los Angeles. While posing as an addict, he is approached by Boyd Aviation executive vice president Alan Stanwyk, who assumes Fletch is a real Substance dependence. Stanwyk claims to have cancer, with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 ($ today) for Fletch to kill him at his mansion in a few days time, stage the scene as a burglary, then flee to Rio de Janeiro.