Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher is moved off of obituaries and wedding announcements at the News Tribune and is assigned his first journalistic interview, only to have the subject turn up dead in the newspaper's parking lot.

A film adaptation of the novel has been in development for some time with a number of different persons attached.

During what is effectively a prequel, Fletch has only been at the News-Tribune as a junior reporter for a short time and Frank (his editor) is losing respect for his new employee.

When Fletch is to run the story of local lawyer Donald Habeck, who requests an interview in order to announce that he is giving 5 million dollars to a local museum, the lawyer turns up dead in the News-Tribune parking lot.

Unsurprisingly Frank takes Fletch off the story and gives it to an experienced reporter who has been with the paper for years.