"Trust me, I'm almost a detective." The ink is barely dry on Richard Valentine's private investigator's license before his very first client frames him for a homicide, forcing Rick to accept help from ex-boss and top LA sleuth Dako Farona to get himself out of trouble. Rick has no love for Farona, who paid him only slave wages during three years of legwork, but he gets caught up in one of Dako's cases after learning it links back to his own father, a police officer killed in the line of duty while Rick was still in kindergarten. When someone sabotages the case by shooting Farona, Rick steps in to take over and, with a little help from the women in his life-including his octogenarian landladies, the duplicitous receptionist at Rick's old job and Dako's beautiful daughter-the neophyte detective morphs into a semi-seasoned PI while unraveling the heartbreaking truth about his father's murder.