It's the summer of 1981, and the streets of Hollywood are a riot of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, the glory days of the L.A. punk scene. At 21, Sean Stoner is young to be working at Krapp Productions. After receiving the ultimate insult from his boss, Sean conspires to get himself fired and sets up shop as a private detective.
His first client is easy enough: a gorgeous woman searching for a lost husband who doesn't exist. But Sean is in trouble when he finds his nympho punk secretary with a broken neck-stark naked on top of his desk.
Things quickly get worse: the CIA moves in next door ... Sean's old Pinto explodes ... Nazi skinheads try to kill him with baseball bats ... and a strange disease breaks out in the gay community.
Meanwhile, Sean investigates the mysterious death of his own father, who died twenty years ago in a bizarre double murder-in the very office where the CIA is conducting its top-secret operation.
When Sean's screenwriter friend, Conrad, is found with his brains blown out, Sean refuses to believe it was suicide. Then Hillary appears, Conrad's hauntingly beautiful sister, and Sean and Hillary join forces to uncover Conrad's killer.