Jack Dobson (James Belushi) is lying down, bleeding and dead, in a deserted clearing in the woods: "Yeah, that's me. No wife, no kid. Just one 9-millimeter bullet lodged in my chest." The voice from the corpse then introduces the audience to the area of his demise --Palm Beach, a town where everyone "leads three lives: public, private, and secret." Dobson is a homicide detective in Palm Beach who takes advantage of his position to bed a variety of women, while his brother Michael (William Russ) prepares to run for public office. One of Dobson's lovers is imported New Yorker Ellen (Lorraine Bracco). She sees Dobson leave a parking lot with a waitress and before long the waitress turns up dead. Dobson investigates the murder and determines that a serial killer is on the loose. When more women turn up dead with connections to Dobson, the finger of guilt points not only to Jack but also to his partner Steve (Tony Goldwyn), Steve's wife Beth (Faye Grant), and even his respectable senatorial candidate brother.