The script is by two Oscar-winning screenwriters, Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg) and Ernest Tidyman (The French Connection).

Beauregard "Bo" Lockley (Michael Moriarty), long-haired and thoughtful, is a new type of undercover detective in the New York City Police Department.

However, when she misses the appointment, he goes to where she and Henderson are living, and in the confused shoot-out that follows, Lockley accidentally shoots her dead.

Lockley chases Henderson through the streets and into the Saks Fifth Avenue department store, and the two end up trapped in an elevator between floors, holding guns on each other.

Lockley's and the policewoman's superior officers, determined to save their careers, scramble to come up with a story that would be minimally embarrassing to the department.