Frank Keller, Al Pacino, is a burned-out New York City homicide detective who has endured two decades on the force, a failing marriage, and a mounting sense of futility. His wife left him and married one of his colleagues, leaving him to wrestle with a bottle and the ache of a life that hasn’t quite added up. When a troubling case lands on his desk, he faces a killer who shoots men in their beds, naked and listening to a worn 45 rpm of the 1959 classic Sea of Love. The investigation narrows to three striking clues: a lipstick-smeared cigarette, a want ad the dead man placed in the lonely-hearts column, and the killer’s fingerprints left behind. The case feels almost personal, and Frank must confront a growing weariness even as the pressure to solve the murders tightens around him.
A second victim dies in the same disturbingly clinical manner in Queens, and the local precinct responds with urgency. Detective Sherman Touhey, John Goodman, suggests that the two of them pool their resources and run this down together. Both victims had placed rhyming ads in the lonely-hearts section, a chilling detail that hints at a pattern and a motive. The trail leads them to Raymond Brown, Michael O’Neill the only other man with a rhyming ad, a married man who admits placing the ad but swears he discarded the letters and never saw anyone. The case begins to tilt toward a personal torment rather than a random series of killings, and Frank’s instincts tell him there is more at stake than just matching fingerprints to a suspect.
In a bid to flush out the killer, Frank decides to imitate the method that claimed the other victims: he places a rhyming ad in the paper, plans to meet women in a restaurant, and tries to retrieve prints from their drinking glasses. His precinct chief remains skeptical but gradually comes around when Brown’s own death confirms that the pattern is real and deadly. As Frank delves deeper, he ends up in a social maze, dining with several women while Sherman, masquerading as a waiter, quietly bags the glasses for forensic analysis. One woman, Helen Cruger, Ellen Barkin — a divorced woman who runs a stylish shoe store — initially shows no interest in Frank and exits a table without ever taking a drink, so he cannot obtain her prints. A chance encounter at a market changes everything, and Helen appears warmer, a subtle shift that makes Frank reassess his approach and his own risk tolerance. He keeps his occupation to himself, opting for normalcy in a moment that feels dangerously close to real connection.
The two detectives’ work continues to blur the lines between professional and personal, and Frank and Helen slowly move from wary acquaintances to something closer to a forbidden romance. They go to his apartment, despite Sherman’s warnings, and what begins as a tentative, electric encounter soon becomes a charged, mutual attraction. A dangerous undercurrent runs beneath their growing closeness: Frank spots a gun in Helen’s purse, and his nerves flare. Helen explains she keeps what she calls a starting pistol because she’s been frightened lately, a detail that hardly eases his suspicion. They share a night of passion, and the relationship deepens, even as Frank recognizes the conflict between his love for Helen and the job he’s sworn to do. He has a chance to obtain Helen’s prints on a glass, but, torn between desire and duty, he wipes the evidence away. The romance strains as Helen discovers that he is a cop, and the trust that once seemed possible starts to fray. A moment of vulnerability breaks through when Frank almost confesses his true feelings while drunk, but he is stopped by the fear of what the truth might reveal. When he confronts her about the ads, Helen refuses to admit any involvement, and he tells her to leave.
Scooping closer to the truth, a new, chilling revelation arrives just as Frank faces the possibility of companionship. The killer bursts into the apartment: Terry, Michael Rooker, Helen’s ex-husband, who has been stalking her and murdering the men she dates. Terry uses fear and brutality to force Frank into a humiliating, intimate lie on the bed, forcing him to demonstrate exactly how he made love to Helen in the past, as the killer did to his other victims. Frank’s reflexes kick in, and he overpowers Terry, scrambling for the phone to call for help. In the struggle that follows, Terry lunges again, and they tumble toward the window. Frank manages to throw Terry out, and Terry plummets to his death through the apartment’s bedroom window, a grim final act of violence and a brutal wake-up call for Frank.
Weeks pass, and Frank begins to rebuild his life with a clearer sense of sobriety. He meets Sherman in a bar, and the two men, who had built their professional camaraderie on shared danger, find a way back to trust. In the quiet aftermath, Helen re-enters the picture, and she confronts the pain of the past with a surprising degree of forgiveness. The film closes on a fragile but hopeful note: Frank remains committed to his sobriety, his partnership with Sherman is rekindled, and he and Helen decide to try again, choosing each other in the shadow of the crimes that nearly broke them both.
