While driving along a darkened stretch of Florida road, Travis McGee and friend Meyer encounter a young girl wearing little more than a frightened look as she leaps out from the shadows directly in line with their headlights. A skillful swerve saves the girl but finds McGee and friend upside down in ten feet of swamp water. Not two minutes later they are dodging bullets fired from a speeding pickup. McGee reports these unusual events to the local sheriff and finds himself arrested for murder!