Early in 1948, L.A. private detective Michael Garrett comes to Philadelphia to testify in a missing persons case. While there he is asked to travel to the small town of Lancaster in western Pennsylvania, where he is hired by the alluring Lenore Stevens to find her missing husband, Charles. Finding him turns out to be easy. He is stretched out on a bed in a dubious place called the Shady Lodge Motel with a bullet in his chest and a gun in his hand...