| Director | Ivan Passer |
|---|---|
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $1.7 million |
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.
After the fire destroys Cutter's house, he becomes convinced that Cord had been trying to kill Bone. George, who considers Cord a friend and mentor, warns Bone that Cutter is putting himself in danger and should leave Cord alone. Now homeless, Cutter stays in George's guesthouse, where he researches Cord. He concludes that Cord was responsible for the death of George's father years earlier in order to gain control of the marina, and that Cord later paid for George's education and helped establish his business to maintain influence over him.
Cutter takes an invitation George received to a party at Cord's house and gets Bone to drive him there. When Cutter tells Bone that he plans to kill Cord and heads toward the house, Bone follows him in an attempt to stop him. After being chased by security guards, Bone winds up in Cord's office. Cord suggests that Cutter's war experience has made him paranoid. After stealing one of Cord's horses, Cutter suddenly crashes through the window on horseback. As Cutter lies dying from his injuries, Bone accuses Cord of killing the girl, and Cord responds ambiguously. Bone steadies Cutter's gun in Cutter's hand and fires as the film cuts to black.