Lloyd Hopkins, a hard-boiled American police detective is on the trail of a mass murderer who is victimizing women in Los Angeles. The pursuit leads him through a world that has become his own natural habitat - a nasty world of crime, drugs, prostitution and male hustlers where "innocence kills" and continued exposure corrupts. Paradoxically, it's also a world of love, secret admirers, romantic feminist poets and modern chivalry. And for the viewer, it's the background for an exciting, suspense movie.

At one point in the movie Lloyd (James Woods) rings a doorbell to an apartment building. One of the names of the residents is Gene Rudolf, which is the name of this film's production designer.

Lloyd Hopkins:
You blow away a broad's date, the least you can do is drive her home.