Based on the same-titled novel by Raymond Chandler, the drama is set in Tokyo, in the 1950's. Harada Tamotsu was suspected of murdering his wife, the actress Harada Shizuka. He then fled to Taiwan and had apparently committed suicide over there. However, Tamotsu's friend Masuzawa Banji, who works as a private detective, has doubts about Tamotsu's death, but the incident is hushed up by Harada Heizo, a powerful media mogul. Soon after, Masuzawa is pulled into another case involving the neighbors of the Harada family, a drunk novelist Kamiido Joji. His investigations lead him to a publishing company editor, Haneoka, and to the sister of the murdered Shizuka, Takamura Yoshino. Most but not least, he is introduced to Joji's beautiful wife, Aiko, who seems to be the key to both the cases.