Chapters 1 through 5 Summary

Phillip Marlowe describes the first time he sees Terry Lennox outside a club called The Dancers. He is with a girl and Marlowe will later learn it's his ex-wife, Sylvia. Terry is very drunk. He falls out of his car and the girl, calling him a "lost dog" but saying he's "mostly housebroken," drives away and leaves him. Marlowe approaches him and helps him up though the parking attendant says he wouldn't help. Marlowe says that that attitude has apparently gotten the parking attendant a long way in life so far but the man doesn't catch Marlowe's sarcasm. Marlowe takes him home, sobers him up enough to get his address and takes him to his own apartment. He sees him again at Thanksgiving when Lennox is again drunk. This time, Marlowe intervenes just before a policeman arrests him.

Lennox leaves a...