Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker with tuberculosis who writes pulp fiction for a living, receives an unexpected visit from an old friend asking for help.

• American Zoetrope
• Frederic Forrest
• Peter Boyle
• Marilu Henner
• Roy Kinnear
• Lydia Lei
• Elisha Cook Jr.
• David Patrick Kelly
• R.G. Armstrong