Jack Nicholson reprises his role as private investigator Jake Gittes in this sequel to Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown' (1974). It is 1948 and Jake has been hired by Julius Berman (Harvey Kietel) to investigate the extra-marital affairs of his wife Kitty (Meg Tilly). When Jake arranges for Berman to catch Kitty in the act, Berman draws a gun and shoots his wife's lover, thereby embroiling the unwitting Gittes in a very complex piece of Los Angeles chicanery involving oil deals, orange groves and an incident in the detective's own past.