Eccentric private eye Dirk Gently uses 'holistic' methods, believing everything in the universe to be connected. When hired to trace elderly Ruth's missing cat, Dirk, with down-trodden sidekick MacDuff, investigates a warehouse, which houses a strange contraption, which blows up. A connection is made to a missing billionaire, Gordon Way, who has been besotted with MacDuff's girlfriend Susan for over a decade. Dirk connects the dates when Ruth acquired her cat and when Susan threw over Way to solve a puzzle involving time travel and homicide, accounting for the missing...

Accompanied by MacDuff, Dirk returns to St Cedd's Institute of Science and Technology, Cambridge, from which he had been expelled for cheating, as his former mentor Professor Jericho has asked for his help in guarding Elaine, a sophisticated robot named after his daughter, used in his research into artificial intelligence. When Elaine is stolen, Dirk investigates seeing Jericho's colleague Emelda as the prime suspect. MacDuff meanwhile is tempted to leave Dirk's agency as his girlfriend, Susan, has applied for a job in Cambridge.