Steve Everett (CLINT EASTWOOD) is an investigative reporter with a lot of problems. An alcoholic, he’s only been sober for two months. An unrelenting womanizer, he’s on the verge of being thrown out by his wife, Barbara (DIANE VENORA). Thanks to his messy personal life, he was fired from the New York Times. He has since relocated to the West Coast and The Oakland Tribune. If it wasn’t for his friend Alan Mann (JAMES WOODS), the Tribune’s editor-in-chief, he wouldn’t have a job at all.