At the Blue Dahlia, where homicide detective Carmen Molina moonlights as a torch singer, she finds a dead woman lying in the parking lot. The words 'she left' are spray-painted nearby. Soon, a second anonymous woman is found dead in another parking lot. Is a serial killer at work? Will the tough lieutenant have to resort to accepting help from the despised amateur sleuth Temple Barr to crack the case? Meanwhile, Midnight Louie, Temple's jet-black feline with a nose for the notorious, finds himself walking on the wild side when a glamorous feline client seeks his help in finding her missing boyfriend.