Set in San Francisco, the story takes place over a six-day period in December 1928. A tough, independent detective, Sam Spade is hired by the beautiful and mysterious “Miss Wonderly,” who walks into his office pleading desperately for help finding her sister. This bogus job gets Spade's partner, Miles Archer, and a thug named Thursby killed that same night. Though he disliked Archer, Spade’s personal moral code dictates that “when a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it.”
The police question Spade’s innocence because he and Archer’s wife were having an affair. After Miss Wonderly summons Spade to her hotel the next day, she confesses that her real name is Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Spade knows he’s being manipulated but remains uncertain about Brigid’s motives. He returns to his office, where the shadowy Joel Cairo pays a surprise visit and offers five thousand dollars for the return of a jewel-encrusted black bird.
Spade soon realizes that O’Shaughnessy, Cairo, and Cairo’s boss, Casper Gutman, are all seeking an elusive falcon statuette once owned by the legendary Knights of Rhodes. Spade is not a man to shy away from a fight, but he is also clever enough to play along in order to find the falcon and prove himself innocent.
Who murdered Spade’s partner? Where is the Maltese falcon? Is Brigid O’Shaughnessy as guileless as she claims? Will Spade risk himself to save her? Among many other things, The Maltese Falcon is about what it’s like to want something – a fortune, a lover, or even respect – so badly that you would kill for it, give up a chance at happiness to get it, until finally the chase itself means more to you than what you’re chasing.
Excerpt taken from the National Endowment for the Arts Reader’s Guide. For more insider information on The Maltese Falcon, click here.
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