Roger Moore is Dr. Judd Stevens, a rather meek Chicago psychiatrist whose patient is killed while wearing a jacket borrowed from Stevens. After Stevens'' secretary is brutally slain, Lieutenant McGreavy (Rod Steiger) is certain that Stevens is guilty and is ready to prove it, but when his vendetta gets too obvious, he is taken off the case. That leaves his partner Angeli (Elliott Gould), a much more sympathetic cop, to continue on with the investigation. Even then, the killings continue, so Stevens gives up on the police and goes for help to a wacky P.I. (Art Carney) who lives surrounded by clocks and at first seems like a hopeless nitwit. As Stevens continues in his pursuit of the killers, life is complicated by a Mafia bride who seeks his professional help and clues that lead increasingly to the Mafia and cops on the take.