The big sleep

General Sternwood is a sickly old man who has hired private detective Philip Marlowe to sort out gambling debts accrued by his wayward daughter, Carmen. The debts are owed to a bookseller, Arthur Geiger. Marlowe agrees to take on the case and also learns, from Sternwood's elder daughter, Vivian Rutledge, that a good friend of Sternwood's, Sean Regan, mysteriously disappeared a month earlier.