Three discharged United States Navy officers, Johnny Morrison, Buzz Wanchek and George Copeland, arrive in Hollywood, California. All three flew together in the same flight crew in the South Pacific. Buzz has a shell shock and a metal plate in his head above his ear.
While George and Buzz get a flat together, Johnny surprises his wife Helen at her old apartment, which is patrolled by a house detective, "Dad" Newell. He discovers that she is having an affair with Eddie Harwood, owner of the Blue Dahlia nightclub on the Sunset Strip. Helen, drunk, confesses to Johnny that their son Dickie, whom Johnny believed died of diphtheria, actually died in a car crash that occurred because she was driving drunk. Newell sees Johnny and Helen fight. Later Johnny pulls a gun on Helen, but drops it and leaves. Helen calls Buzz and tells her about the fight.
Buzz goes out to find Johnny. He meets Helen and, unaware of her identity, goes to her bungalow for a drink.
Eddie breaks up with Helen, but Helen blackmails him into seeing her again.
Johnny is picked up in the rain by Joyce Harwood, who is separated from Eddie. Neither reveals their name, and they spend the night in separate rooms in a Malibu inn. The next morning, they have breakfast and he decides to give his marriage another chance. Then the radio announces that Helen has been murdered and that Johnny is suspected.
The police interview Newell, Harwood, Buzz and George.
After Johnny checks into a cheap hotel under an assumed name, Corelli, the hotel manager, finds Johnny's photo of himself with Dickie and tries to blackmail him. Johnny beats Corelli up, then discovers that on the back of the photo, Helen has revealed that Eddie is really Bauer, a murderer wanted in New Jersey.
Corelli revives and sells information on Johnny's identity to a gangster named Leo, who kidnaps him.
Buzz and George visit Eddie at the Blue Dahlia, and Joyce introduces herself. As Joyce picks at a blue dahlia flower, the nightclub's music sets off a painful ring in Buzz's head, and lapsing into a fit, he remembers the agonizing music he heard while at Helen's bungalow as she played with a blue dahlia.
Johnny escapes Leo's henchmen as Eddie arrives and forces him to admit that fifteen years before he was involved in the shooting of a bank messenger.
Leo tries to shoot Johnny, but hits Eddie instead. Johnny flees to the Blue Dahlia, where the police are trying to force a confused Buzz to admit he killed Helen.
Johnny enters and suggests that Joyce turn up the music. As his head pounds, Buzz remembers leaving Helen alive in her bungalow. Police Captain Henrickson then confronts Newell with the accusation that he tried to blackmail Helen about her affair, and when she refused to comply, killed her. Newell then tries to escape from the office, but is shot by Henrickson.
Later, outside the Blue Dahlia, Buzz and George decide to go for a drink, leaving Johnny and Joyce together.
Where does Johnny check into?
cheap hotel