Magnum has been hired by a woman to act out some of her rich, bored sister's fantasy dramas, concocted from 1930s Dashiell Hammett films. Although growing to enjoy the world of fantasy, Magnum has a hard time keeping up with the eccentric woman, and when he finds out that her husband is a wealthy, infamously jealous and bad-tempered business man, he decides to cut his loses and finish the arrangement. But he is just informing the girl that he is calling a halt to his participation, when they are attacked by real thugs, and soon after the girl is poisoned. With the woman still caught up in her world of fantasy, Magnum must thrust himself back into reality to find out just what is really going on...

It's the Wild West all over again when a hot-headed young Texan hires Magnum to find his sister.

A year after escaping from Moscow in a Mig-30 jet, a Soviet defector hires Magnum to help his girlfriend defect from an Olympic track team visiting Hawaii. She is under close watch of undercover K.G.B. agents, and Magnum, T.C., and Rick, with assistance from Higgins, must carry out their plan with Military precision to free her...

Rod Crysler, Thomas's Navy buddy, is on parole and working as an encyclopedia salesman after serving time in California on a marijuana possession charge. The corrupt narcotics officer who arrested Rod follows him to Hawaii and threatens to send him back to prison on trumped up charges unless Rod serves a drug courier for him. Thomas offers to help his buddy out by delivering a box of encyclopedias Rod has sold, but comes in for a rude awakening when it turns out the package was filled with dope, not books, and that Rod has shortchanged one of the biggest dealers on the island. Finding it hard to believe that his friend is a dope dealer, Thomas seeks the help of Rod's parole officer in locating him and setting up a sting to ensnare the corrupt cop and the drug dealer, thereby clearing Rod's name.

Thomas remembers his first client and his first case as a Private Investigator in 1979, when he was hired by a surfing champion who was being threatened, and was on the verge of entering into a serious relationship with her. The memories are brought on when now, in the present day, she calls for his help once again, to protect her and her young daughter after she again begins receiving threats. But events of present day seem destined to parallel the events of 1979...

Lieutenant Tanaka is murdered while working undercover. The official Police report states that Tanaka died in a car accident, but Thomas believes that something is being covered up, and sets about trying to answer the many questions about his friend Tanaka's death, uncovering switched identities and drug-running in the process...