Nancy Weston, a reporter for The Globe, approaches Abraham Gentry Frank Kress, an obnoxious private investigator, and offers him a rich incentive: $25,000 from The Globe to probe the brutal murder of stripper Suzie Cream Puff. The deal sweetens with a further $25,000 bonus if he can crack the case and deliver an exclusive story. Gentry accepts the assignment, with Weston in tow, and the hunt begins in the smoky, glitzy world of a city nightclub where secrets hide behind sequins and a mountain of cash.
Inside the club, Gentry’s path crosses with Marlene Hedda Lubin, a waitress whose abrasive attitude tests his patience as he pushes through to speak with a new suspect, Joseph Carter. The work quickly spirals as tragedy follows tragedy: Candy Cane, another stripper, is murdered, expanding the suspect pool and pushing Gentry to confront a chain of possible culprits. Grout, a volatile Vietnam veteran who finds release in drawing faces on squashes before crushing them, becomes a prime suspect, and the investigation broadens to include a radical feminist group that stages noisy protests at the club, carrying banners with provocative phrases like "Lewd is Crude," "Quit with Tit," and "Women Right On!" The brutal crime scene of Lola Prize, also known as Pickles, adds another layer of horror when her buttocks are mutilated with a meat tenderizer hammer, then salted and peppered, with a badge reading "Women Right On!" found nearby.
As Gentry piles up clues, he uses Weston as a conduit to keep things moving, gently browbeating her into keeping the case visible while he steers his own inquiry. Weston, in a rare moment of candor between sips, admits an attraction to the hard-boiled investigator, a detail Gentry threads into the broader plot while maintaining the distance necessary to stay focused on the murders. The investigation takes him to the strip-club magnate, Mr. Marzdone Mobilie Henny Youngman, whom Gentry coerces into staging an amateur stripper contest with a $1,000 prize. The event becomes a trap: Weston, under the influence, is coaxed to perform and she goes all out, winning the cash and providing Gentry with a high-profile moment to maneuver closer to the killer.
After Weston returns to her apartment to rest, the supposed victim becomes a target again. The killer arrives, and Gentry—who anticipated exactly this move—emerges from the shadows, removing the hood to reveal Marlene [Hedda Lubin], the club’s abrasive waitress, as the perpetrator. The scene escalates into a brutal struggle as Marlene shifts into flight, slipping from a balcony and meeting a fatal end as a car on the street below barrels into her. A final, decisive monologue from Gentry to Nancy Weston [Amy Farrell] reveals the case’s deeper logic: Marlene’s backstory as a burned stripper, her breasts seared away in a past fire, explained her hatred for other women who still embodied the beauty she could no longer claim. The motive, born from jealousy and vengeance, ties the murders together in a grim, twisted arc.
Weston, part angry and part awed, accepts that she was used as bait to draw out the killer, recognizing the dangerous, morally gray calculus behind Gentry’s pursuit of the truth. The two lovers-to-be acknowledge their chemistry as they prepare to cover the story for The Globe, acknowledging that the narrative they’ve built will make a powerful contribution to the paper. The film closes with the pair looking into the camera as the credits roll, and the final title card declaring, “We announce with pride: this movie is over!”
