Rock Banyon, a hard-luck jazz pianist, passes out and awakens to find he is the prime suspect in two murders in Los Angeles: his singer/part-time lover Fresno Foxglove and scientist Wilber Stygamian. The cops give Rock three days to help solve the murder. Instead he splits town for Mexico where he runs into a washed up singer named Delores DeWinter

Rock hightails it to Mexico, where he reunites with his one-time big band singer, Delores DeWinter. Rock is visited by the ghost of Fresno Foxglove, who warns him not to dig deep into the murders. Rock decides to return to the U.S. to clear his name but a trip to the morgue reveals no clues. Meanwhile his manager Alistair Barnaby St. Bixby-Jones hounds him to make a jazz album with strings and Delores bakes a cake.

The pressure of trying to solve the murders and clear his name is getting to Rock. After blowing a big TV gig he ends up in a bar where he meets Kenton Price. Kenton reveals that scientist Wilbur Stygamian was a powerful player in the underground 1950's gay community. Meanwhile another body turns up, a sax player who went missing the night Fresno died

With only two days to clear his name of now three murders, Rock pays a visit to Kenton. Before Kenton can tell him who the killer was, he is shot down, leaving Rock with no answers and only one name, Gerhart Moll. Back in his apartment he has a conversation with his cat about making a jazz album with strings. He then decides to break into the house of scientist Wilbur Stygamian and discovers an underground room with three evil people waiting for him.

In the hidden room beneath scientist Wilbur Stygamian's house, Rock is drugged and left for dead. His hallucinations take him into the darkest corners of his mind. He survives what was supposed to be a lethal injection and pays a visit to Gerhart Moll. Gerhart knows what he is looking for – a modern statue once owned by Adolf Hitler. The statue will clear his name, but the clock is ticking and he's not the only one looking for it.

Rock finds the mysterious statue that holds the secrets to his freedom. He heads to his cabin in the woods with his manager Alistar and Delores. Federal agents jump Rock and there is a shoot out. Rock explains why he can never do a jazz album with strings and then goes to meet J. Edgar Hoover for a final showdown.