Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) is a maverick cop who goes undercover to pose as a hitman to be hired by Paul Deveneux (Terry Kinney), who has a beautiful companion in Michel Duval (Kim Basinger). Deveneux has come to Chicago specifically to find a hitman. While Jillette's partner Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba) escorts Duval back to her hotel, Jillette meets with Deveneux, but before Jillette can find out the details of the target in New Orleans, Deveneux is killed. Jillette escapes and goes to meet up with his partner, only to find that he too has been killed. Jillette's boss, Captain Sternkowski (George Dzundza) allows Jillette to go to New Orleans to hunt down Collins' killer. The villain Jillette is tracking is Losado (Jeroen Krabb). Jillette's first option is to try to find Losado through Paul Deveneux's cousin Allan (William Atherton), who resents Jillette's actions and is very protective of Duval. Jillette arrests Duval for complicity in the murder of his partner and the two of them then find themselves on the run both from Losado and from the local police chief Lieutenant Hall (Bruce McGill). This is a very exciting story and I will say only that Jillette eventually gets his man - but getting there runs into a great many difficulties.