Red Harvest follows the detective known as the Continental Op in his investigation of several murders amid a labor dispute in a corrupt Montana mining town. The Continental Op is called to Personville (known as "Poisonville" to the locals) by the newspaper publisher Donald Willsson, who gets murdered before the Op has a chance to meet with him. The Op meets with the victim's father, Elihu Willsson, a local industrialist who has found his control of the city threatened by several competing gangs. In the meantime, the Op is spending time with Dinah Brand, a possible love interest of the late Donald, who is connected to a local gang. However, when the Op wakes up the next morning, he finds Dinah stabbed to death with the ice pick he handled the previous evening. The Op becomes a suspect for Dinah's murder, wanted by the police, so he tries to solve the puzzle in front of him in order to clear his name and finish the job.