Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a pub, Easy matches DeWitt Albright, a mystical man searching to inquire into the disappearance of a white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out at a few of the black jazz nightclubs of the city. Strapped for the cash and confronting house obligations, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself over his head.