A lady portraying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator J.J. Gittes to do reconnaissance on her husband Hollis Mulwray, who is the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water. Gittes follows him—hears him publicly oppose the building of a reservoir at a hearing—and takes pictures of him with another lady which are published on the front page of the newspaper. When he returns to his office, he is met by a lady who angrily tells him that she is the real Evelyn Mulwray and that she is filing a lawsuit. Mr. Gittes decides that whomever set him up was targeting Hollis Mulwray. Before he can question the Mr. Mulwray, Lieutenant Escobar finds Mr. Mulwray’s dead body. The cause of death was drowning. Suspicious of foul play, Mr. Gittes investigates further and discovers that although large quantities of water are dumped from the reservoir every night the land is dry. Gittes is confronted by the Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill accompanied by another man who cuts Mr. Gittes’ nose. He returns to his office and receives a call from Ida Sessions, the lady who initially portrayed herself as Mrs. Mulwray. She is too scared to identify who employed her, but submits to Mr. Gittes that the name of one of the people involved is in the obituary section of the newspaper. …show more content…
Gittes ascertains that Mrs. Mulwray's husband was the business partner of her father, Noah Cross. He goes to meet Mr. Cross at the Albacore Club. Mr. Cross hires Mr. Gittes to search for Mr. Mulwray's mistress, who has disappeared. Mr. Gittes travels to the hall of records where he learns that large amounts of land in the northwest valley have recently been purchased. After travelling to the valley for further examination, he is attacked by the owners of an orange grove in the valley. The landowners assumed he was an employee of the water department attempting to drive them out by sabotaging their water tanks and poisoning their