A Red Death

Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins lives a double life in 1953 Los Angeles. A World War II veteran, he publicly works as a handyman and janitor but secretly owns three apartment buildings. He also performs favors for people in his community who cannot go to the police. While cleaning his Magnolia Street property, a sick tenant named Poinsettia Jackson begs him to ask his rent collector, Mofass, for more time to pay. Mofass arrives and aggressively confronts Poinsettia, who has not paid rent in months. She screams that she will tell her boyfriend, Willie, about him. Easy, troubled by a separate matter, arranges to meet Mofass for lunch.

At a Mexican restaurant, Easy shows Mofass a letter from the Internal Revenue Service. The letter, from Investigating Agent Reginald Arnold Lawrence, announces an investigation into how Easy afforded his properties and effectively accuses him of tax evasion. Mofass explains that the charge could lead to federal prison. He advises Easy to lie to Lawrence and claim he owns nothing. When Easy returns home, he finds his garden destroyed by a young boy, LaMarque. The boy's mother is EttaMae Harris, the wife of Easy's notoriously violent best friend, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander. EttaMae explains that she and her son have fled Houston because Mouse has become dangerously unstable. Fearing Mouse's jealousy, Easy arranges for EttaMae and LaMarque to move into one of his vacant apartments.

Easy meets with Agent Lawrence, who is condescending and reveals he knows the addresses of Easy's properties. Lawrence demands Easy's financial records by the next evening. Feeling desperate, Easy prepares for their next meeting, armed with a pistol. He arrives to find another man with Lawrence: Special Agent Darryl T. Craxton of the FBI. Craxton offers a deal: if Easy helps with an FBI mission, his tax case will be managed so he can pay in installments. The mission requires Easy to infiltrate the First African Baptist Church to get close to Chaim Wenzler, a Jewish man suspected of being a communist union organizer. Craxton also asks Easy to find Andre Lavender, a former associate of Wenzler's who has disappeared from his job at Champion Aircraft.

Easy goes to Targets Bar, where the owner, John McKenzie, tells him Mouse is in town looking for him and EttaMae. Easy finds Mouse at the bar and refuses to reveal EttaMae's location. Mouse threatens him, warning him not to interfere. From his friend Dupree Bouchard, Easy learns that Andre Lavender disappeared from Champion after some trouble involving the police. Later, returning to his Magnolia Street building, Easy discovers a foul smell from Poinsettia's apartment. He enters and finds her decomposing body hanging from a light fixture. Police detectives Andrew Reedy and Quinten Naylor investigate. Reedy assumes it is a suicide, but Naylor is suspicious and notes what appear to be fresh bruises on the body.

Easy attends the First African Baptist Church with EttaMae. His friend Odell Jones, the church custodian, introduces him to the head deacon, Jackie Orr, as a potential volunteer. Orr agrees to have Easy assist Chaim Wenzler, who needs a driver. Afterwards, Easy is confronted and attacked by Willie Sacks, Poinsettia's boyfriend, who blames Mofass for her death. Easy wins the fistfight. That night, he goes to EttaMae's apartment, and they begin a love affair.

Easy starts working with Chaim collecting clothes for charity, and the two men form a genuine bond. Deciding to find Andre Lavender to gain leverage with Craxton, Easy seduces Andre's ex-girlfriend, Juanita Barnes, and finds Andre's address on letters she has kept. He tracks Andre to Riverside, where he is hiding with Linda Hughes, the wife of an insurance man, Winthrop "Shaker" Hughes. Easy tricks Shaker into leading him to the house and intervenes when Shaker attacks Andre. He recovers the remaining $1,800 of Shaker's money, gives a portion to Linda and himself, and returns the rest to Shaker before taking Andre with him. Andre confesses that he accidentally stole a Top Secret document from Champion Aircraft. He took it to Chaim, who helped him hide it in a wrecked truck in a car graveyard before telling him to disappear.

Returning home, Easy finds Agent Lawrence and federal marshals boarding up his house. A fight breaks out, but Easy's neighbors intervene, and the marshals let him go. Easy calls Craxton, who promises to stop Lawrence's harassment. One night, a drunk and guilt-ridden Easy collapses at the church, confessing to Chaim and his daughter, Shirley, that he feels responsible for a woman's death. The next day, while working in the church basement with Chaim, Easy hears a scream. He runs upstairs to Reverend Towne's apartment and finds the minister and an unknown young woman, Tania Lee, shot to death. The police, led by Detective Naylor, take Easy to the station for interrogation. They reveal that Poinsettia was murdered, noting that a chair meant to suggest suicide was too far from her body. When Easy refuses to cooperate, an officer beats him. Craxton arrives and secures his release, calling the murders a professional job.

Easy learns from EttaMae that Mofass had been paying Poinsettia's rent and acting as her pimp. Mofass has disappeared, claiming his mother is sick in New Orleans. Easy gains access to Mofass's empty room and finds receipts for Poinsettia's medical bills and a list of names. He learns from an informant, Jackson Blue, that Tania Lee was a member of a Black nationalist group, the African Migration. While investigating, he uncovers a secondary plot involving payoffs from church funds to several deacons and a local activist group. After Mofass falsely implicates Easy to the deacons, Melvin Pride, believing Easy is the killer, attacks him at his home. In the struggle, Melvin is shot with his own gun. Shirley Wenzler then finds Easy and takes him to her father's home, where they discover Chaim has also been murdered. She reveals Chaim was a communist who planned to leak the secret documents. Easy takes Shirley to his house for safety, where they become lovers. As they stand outside, a gunman fires a shot at them, and Easy sends Shirley into hiding.

Easy has Mouse capture Mofass at an abandoned warehouse. Mofass confesses the entire plot: Agent Lawrence was blackmailing him over tax evasion and forced him to procure Poinsettia as a mistress. Lawrence became abusive and caused the accident that crippled her. He then devised a scheme to extort wealthy Black men, with Easy as the next target. Lawrence killed Poinsettia when she threatened to expose him, and he killed Towne and Wenzler to eliminate anyone who could link him to the FBI's investigation. Easy lets Mofass go and sets a trap for Lawrence, arranging a meeting at Griffith Park. After retrieving the top-secret document from the car graveyard, he poses as a deliveryman to enter Lawrence's house, where he plants one of the stolen documents to frame Lawrence as a spy.

At the park, Lawrence admits to the murders. When he tries to kill Easy, Mouse, hidden nearby, shoots and kills him. The case is closed when Lawrence's pistol is matched to the murders and his fingerprints are found in Poinsettia's apartment. He is posthumously framed as a spy, and Craxton resolves Easy's tax problems. Easy distributes the blackmail money to the victims' families. He goes to EttaMae's apartment, intending to ask her to flee to Mexico with him, but overhears her and Mouse passionately reconciling. Realizing she will never be his, he leaves. He confronts Mofass and forces him to continue working as his rent collector. With his plans changed, Easy agrees to take in his godson, Jesus, while the boy's adoptive parents are away. The temporary arrangement becomes permanent, and Jesus becomes Easy's son.