The Little Sister - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

The story opens when mousy Orfamay Quest first phones and then visits Philip Marlowe's office in search of a detective. Orfamay is a "small, neat, rather prissy-looking girl with primly smooth brown hair and rimless glasses" from Manhattan, Kansas who has come to Los Angeles to search for her older brother Orrin. Orrin had recently come out to nearby Bay City (a fictional tough town that appears in many Chandler novels, modeled on Santa Monica) to work as an engineer for the Cal-Western Aircraft Company, but has in recent months stopped writing to Orfamay and their mother. Orfamay describes her concern to Marlowe and asks that he find her brother. Although Orfamay seems the epitome of the innocent small town girl, Chandler foreshadows that she is not what she seems by having Marlowe say in his initial description of her "and nobody ever looked less like Lady Macbeth".

Marlowe starts with Orrin's last known address, a seedy apartment building in Bay City. He talks to the building supervisor who is counting money and obviously very drunk. The supervisor thinks that Marlowe is there to rob him and a fight breaks out in which Marlowe disarms him.

Marlowe then finds a man who presents himself as a retired optometrist living in Orrin's old room. The man seems rather cagey for a retired optometrist and he and Marlowe trade wise cracks as they both try to feel each other out for information. During the exchange, Marlowe notices that the "optometrist" wears a toupee and is carrying a gun.

As Marlowe leaves the apartment building he notices the supervisor, now lying unconscious. At first he assumes the supervisor has passed out but as he examines him more closely he realizes the supervisor is dead, from an ice pick stabbed into his neck. He phones the Bay City police and reports the murder but doesn't leave his name.

When Marlowe returns to his office he gets a call from an unidentified man who offers him an easy $100 to hold something. Marlowe agrees to meet the man at his hotel. As he enters the man's room, a blonde emerges from the bathroom with a gun in her hand and her face covered with a towel. She knocks Marlowe out with the gun.

When he comes to he finds the "retired optometrist" dead on the bed in the hotel room, also with an ice pick in his neck. The room has been searched and is in complete disarray. It is obvious that whatever they were looking for was rather small based on the kind of containers that have been opened. As Marlowe surveys the scene he tries to think of a possible spot that the killer may have missed. He remembers the optometrist's toupee which is now fixed to his bald, dead, head. He removes the toupee and finds a claim check for the Bay City Camera Shop. He keeps the claim check and notifies the Los Angeles police of the murder.

The police arrive and as they survey the scene they realize that the victim is not a retired optometrist but in fact a minor player in organized crime. Marlowe, wishing to keep his client shielded from the police, tells them the truth about getting a call from the man to come to his hotel, but not about having met the man earlier. The police aren't satisfied that he is giving them a complete explanation but they let him go for the time being.

Marlowe comes to realize that the woman in the hotel room was Mavis Weld, a film star. He uses the claim check and retrieves a set of photos of Ms. Weld and a reputed gangster named Steelgrave.

Mavis Weld is currently a supporting star but her prospects for true stardom seem very promising, prospects that could be destroyed if a love affair with a gangster made the news. Marlowe goes to Ms. Weld's apartment. There he meets Dolores Gonzales, another minor movie star. He flirts and trades sex-laden wisecracks with Ms. Gonzales and tries to offer to help Ms. Weld but she throws him out.

Two thugs sent by Ms. Weld's agent try to scare Marlowe off the case. Marlowe goes to see the agent and makes the agent realize that far from trying to blackmail Ms. Weld, Marlowe may be able to help her.

Through his investigations Marlowe learns that the photos of Ms. Weld were taken by Orrin, Orfamay's missing brother. He also realizes that Orrin is working with a shady doctor named Lagardie who practices in Bay City. Marlowe confronts Lagardie but as they talk Marlowe is knocked unconscious by a cigarette laced with a small bit of cyanide that Lagardie slipped him. When Marlowe comes to he finds Orrin in the room with him. Orrin has been shot and is dying. With his last ounce of strength Orrin tries to stab Marlowe with an ice pick. This confirms Marlowe's suspicion that Orrin committed the previous murders.

Marlowe realizes that he must call the police but before he does he tries to contact Orfamay. He feels that he owes it to her to let her know that her brother has died before he calls the police. Before he can meet with her however, Ms. Gonzales calls him and says he must come to Steelgrave's home immediately, hinting that Mavis Weld's life is in danger. Marlowe senses a trap but straps on his gun and drives with her to Steelgrave's home in the Hollywood hills.

When Marlowe arrives he finds Mavis Weld is indeed there but Steelgrave is already shot to death, with a gun of the same caliber as Mavis threatened Marlowe with in the hotel room. Ms. Weld confesses to Marlowe that she killed Steelgrave and is ready to turn herself in. Marlowe convinces her to leave the gangster's home and he calls the police to report finding yet another body.

The police are rough with Marlowe, finally fed up with his half truths and eating his dust. Marlowe stands firm and after playing cards all night with an unassuming detective is released when Mavis Weld's agent hires a society lawyer to defend her reputation and the police accept that they don't have anybody to make a convincing case against.

Back in his office, Marlowe is visited by Orfamay one last time. He confronts her with the truth that she knew about the photos Orrin took all along and her real motive was to get money from Mavis Weld, who is her sister. Also, that Orfamay, not her sister Mavis, killed Steelgrave as revenge for Steelgrave killing Orrin at Lagardie's office.

The case seems wrapped up but Marlowe realizes there is one more thread still to go. He confronts Ms. Gonzales at her apartment. She was in fact the one pulling the strings, on Doctor Lagardie and on Orrin. She confesses to Marlowe that she engineered the crimes. Dolores Gonzales killed Steelgrave and told Mavis that her sister Orfamay did it. Delores did it for revenge. She was in love with Steelgrave, who left her for Mavis.

Dolores tells Marlowe that her motive for killing Steelgrave was love -- of Steelgrave -- not money. At first Marlowe laughs in her face – he finds it hard to believe someone who seems so casual about sex could be so passionate about love – but he then realizes she is sincere. Ms. Gonzales was in love with Steelgrave and was jealous of Mavis Weld. Marlowe realizes that he can't touch Ms. Gonzales without destroying Mavis and her career. He leaves her apartment dejectedly, only to see Lagardie heading up to see her. Marlowe apparently realizes the doctor plans to kill her and notifies the police but does not intervene. The police arrive to find her dead.