Two hard-boiled, slightly desperate private eyes, Al Hickey (Bill Cosby) and Frank Boggs (Robert Culp), try to make an honest buck and not get killed doing so in 1970s Los Angeles. They finally get a case they can sink their teeth into (and hopefully get paid for) when they're asked to locate a woman gone missing. Sounds straightforward, but it isn't; soon, they're tracking criminals who've made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars!