Cut-rate private eye Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) finds himself caught in a labyrinth of mendacity and murder in director Arthur Penn's top-notch suspenser. Tapped to locate the runaway daughter (Melanie Griffith) of faded Hollywood star Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward), Harry heads to the Florida Keys, where what he considered a run-of-the-mill case turns into something much more. Meanwhile, his marriage is slowly disintegrating.