Family Plot - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

The story involves a fake psychic, Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris), and her con artist taxi driver boyfriend, George Lumley (Bruce Dern), who attempt to locate the nephew of a wealthy and guiltridden old woman, Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt). Julia, one of Blanche's clients, was responsible for her now-deceased sister giving up a boy for adoption years earlier and now wants to make him her heir. She will pay $10,000 if he is found.

However, the nephew and prospective heir is now a successful jeweler in San Francisco known as Arthur Adamson (William Devane), who has a secret and lurid past, having apparently murdered his adoptive parents and faked his own death. He and his live-in girlfriend, Fran (Karen Black), have successfully kidnapped an assortment of millionaires and dignitaries, returning them when the ransom, in the form of a valuable gemstone, has been delivered, each of which they hide in their chandelier. They enlist Maloney (Ed Lauter), who assisted Arthur in the murder of his adoptive parents, to kill Blanche and George. However, Maloney's effort fails when he drives off a cliff while pursuing Blanche and George.

When Arthur learns that Blanche and George are pursuing him, he suspects the worst, putting their lives in danger.

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