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 cat and billionaire as well as the disappearance of Ruth's husband.