Token Ware (Robin Givens), is a pretty but naive cigarette girl with dreams of Hollywood stardom. Trimmer Waltz (Al Waxman) offers to help her meet all the right people, but what he really has in mind is to do a favor for Rupert Eaton, a charming, over-the-hill movie idol with an eye for young girls. While investigating the gruesome murder of another young Hollywood hopeful, Marlowe uncovers Trimmer's vice ring and the plans he has for Token.

Mobster and promoter Benny Cyrano has a sweet deal with the new boxing commissioner, Senator Courtway (John Ireland), and high hopes for his fair-haired boxer of the moment, Duke Targo. When Cyrano hires Philip Marlowe to find out who is threatening Duke, Marlow discovers that Duke's girlfriend Jean (Roxanne Hunt) is squeezing the Senator for money by passing herself off as his illegitimate daughter, and is getting in the way of Cyrano's plans.

Anything can happen when the Santa Ana wind blows through town, as a late night murder in a bar sets Marlowe off on a new case. There's a woman with a secret, a missing pearl necklace, an affair that could destroy a career, and another corpse before it all wraps up and the red wind dies down.