Cyrus Skeen, private eye in 1928 San Francisco, is approached by a captivating French countess, Vanessa Favaul, and a brusque retired British army colonel, Burton Heywood, to find the thief who stole a priceless artifact from countess's mother. At the same time, he wonders why a harmless Austrian junk shop owner and connoisseur of the fine arts in China Basin, the city's industrial underbelly, was brutally murdered. Complicating these matters is the mystery of who wrote a hit play and why the author is so publicity shy. More a nuisance than a help to Skeen is his friend, Lieutenant Patrick Donovan of the city police. Skeen interviews and interrogates everyone with the least connection with the cases, which begin to coalesce around one central culprit. A succession of lies and a quantum of deceit committed by his clients, his former college friends, and Fincher eventually lead Skeen to stage a literally dramatic resolution in a theater.