One rainy night in Santa Barbara, California, after leaving the El Encanto Hotel, Richard Bone's car breaks down on a side road. He sees a large car draw up a little way behind him. A man throws something into a garbage can. At first, Bone thinks nothing of it and proceeds to meet his best friend, Vietnam veteran Alex Cutter, at a bar. The following day, a young girl is found murdered in a garbage can, and Bone becomes a suspect.
At Santa Barbara's “Old Spanish Days” parade, Bone sees local tycoon J.J. Cord, whom he believes is the man he saw at the garbage can. Cutter begins to take an interest in the case. His interest soon becomes a conspiracy theory that develops into an investigation with a skeptical Bone and Valerie, the dead girl's sister, along for the ride. After Cutter attempts to blackmail Cord as a way of making Cord incriminate himself, Cutter's house mysteriously burns down with his wife, Mo, inside.