- After the opening credits and some seriously dramatic music, we get a quick backstory summary scrolling across the screen like the beginning of Star Wars, except there's a statue of a bird in the background instead of outer space.
- The text tells of a time when the Knights Templar sent Charles V of Spain a Golden Falcon bedazzled with gemstones.
- But…
- Pirates seized the Falcon. (What's a pirate's favorite gemstone? The gaaarrrnet.)
- Its location is a mystery.
- Now we're in San Francisco, in the office of Edaps & Rehcra. Oh, those names are backward—it's the office of Spade & Archer.
- The receptionist, Effie, tells Sam Spade he has a new client—Ms. Wonderly.
- She's gorgeous and sad and in need of a private detective.
- Ms. Wonderly is from New York, but her sister, Corrine, is missing.
- Wonderly believes she's with a man named Floyd Thursby.
- She has been sending her letters, but the sister never showed up for her mail.
- However, Floyd Thursby did: he told Ms. Wonderly that Corrine didn't want to see her.
- Thursby says he'll meet her for dinner, and bring Corrine if she wants to come. But she probably won't.
- Miles Archer, Sam Spade's partner, enters, interrupting Ms. Wonderly's story.
- The men plan to trail Thursby and find Corrine.
- Ms. Wonderly pays the detectives and leaves.