 When the body of a woman is found on an isolated beach, Homicide Lieutenant Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) and his partner, Sergeant Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield), are assigned for the investigation. They conclude, with the support of the report of the coroner, that the victim, the hooker and strip-dancer Gloria Hollinger (Sharon Kelly), committed suicide using pills. They omit to the family the existence of excessive semen in Gloria s orifices, but her father Marty Hollinger (Ben Johnson), a veteran of the Korea war, does not accept the police findings and try to locate the possible criminal following a personal investigation. The leads point to the last person to be with Gloria, the dirty and powerful attorney Leo Sellers (Eddie Albert), and also a regular costumer of Phil s girlfriend, the prostitute Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve).