Early in 1948, L.A. private detective Michael Garrett comes to Philadelphia to testify in a missing persons case. While there he is asked to travel to the small town of Lancaster in western Pennsylvania, where he is hired by the alluring Lenore Stevens to find her missing husband, Charles. Finding him turns out to be easy. He is stretched out on a bed in a dubious place called the Shady Lodge Motel with a bullet in his chest and a gun in his hand. The local cops first call it suicide but then decide it's murder and come to suspect Garrett. To prove his own innocence and keep his agreement with Lenore Stevens, Garrett must find the real killer. In the process he encounters threatening gangsters, corrupt police officers, and a demanding mob boss who owns and operates a local casino called the Silver Club. Compounding this challenge, Garrett comes to realize that the question is not who would want to kill the man whose business employs most of the town's residents, but how many would want him dead?