Detective Rachel Ginsburg has been temporarily reassigned to the Homicide Division at the Valley Station from her home station in West Los Angeles. She is joined there by her partner Bob Anderson and the West Los Angeles coroner Andy Watanabe. The detectives are called out to a homicide at the Westwind-Star movie studio lot. They find the body of one of the producers dead in his office. Soon afterward a well known director is murdered and this murder is more gruesome than the last. Mrs. Sylvia Greenberg provides information about the producer and director from her daughter, but she is unable to help solve the case. Meanwhile, an earthquake strikes the city and is particularly bad in the valley. With the exception of a few fragile sets, the studio lot remains intact. The lot is fast becoming a homicide scene to producers, directors and writers. But Rachel Ginsburg eventually is able to solve the case.