A hard-boiled private detective is hired by a mysterious femme fatale to investigate her father's untimely death, but the case leads them into peril. Film noir spoof, starring Steve Martin and Rachel Ward, including footage from classic detective movies featuring Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Laughton and James Cagney.

Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.