In 1950s Los Angeles, a sleazy tabloid reporter is on the prowl for a potential celebrity bust and Jack Vincennes, a celebrity cop who is enjoying his retirement, becomes involved in a murder investigation which will link him to a web of corruption involving fellow detectives Ed Exley and Bud White. As White and Exley stumble upon the gorgeous Lynn Bracken, a woman who is paramount to the murder investigation, both men struggle to solve the case which is destined to sink the city into scandal.