General Sternwood has four million dollars, and two young daughters, both pretty and both wild. He's an old, sick man, close to death, but he doesn't like being blackmailed. So he asks private detective Philip Marlowe to get the blackmailer off his back. Marlowe knows the dark side of life in Los Angeles well, and nothing much surprises him. But the Sternwood girls are a lot wilder than their old father realizes. They like men, drink, drugs - and it's not just a question of blackmail.

1. Marlowe meets the Sternwoods
2. Mr Geiger's bookstore
3. A dead man disappears
4. Who killed Owen Taylor?
5. Marlowe Meets Eddie Mars
6. Carmen wants her picture
7. Geiger's friends is a killer
8. Marlowe helps the police
9. Marlowe's job is finished - or is it?
10. Marlowe has woman trouble
...etc...