A vicious serial-killer is on the loose in San Francisco and the police trace a link to a small town further down the coast. When Harry Callahan upsets the press and the mayor in his usual style, he's shipped out of town to investigate while the heat is on. With the help of his new Magnum handgun Harry goes on the trail leaving behind the usual trail of dead criminals along the way. San Francisco cop Dirty Harry Callahan is in hot water with his superiors over his lack of sticking to the rules, as well as with a mobster that Dirty Harry angered, and a young punk that Dirty Harry unsuccessfully tried to jail. Meanwhile, a man named George Wilburn is killed in San Francisco -- he's shot in the groin, and then in the head. With mob hit attempts being made on him left and right, Dirty Harry is put on forced vacation and sent to San Paulo to investigate George's murder. What Dirty Harry doesn't know is that the killer is an artist named Jennifer Spencer. 10 years ago, Jennifer and her younger sister Elizabeth were brutally gang raped under a local boardwalk by Wilburn and five other men, and there was one woman who encouraged it all. The woman who encouraged it all was named Ray Parkins. Ray seemed to be more into it than the men were. Elizabeth was in high school at the time, and Jennifer was in college. It has left Jennifer scarred, and Elizabeth was left so scarred that she is still catatonic and institutionalized. For ten years, the rape has driven Jennifer absolutely crazy with anger. As a result, Jennifer has sought out physical revenge against all of those involved in the rape, including Ray Parkins. So, one by one, she's out to kill the rapists because the system didn't do anything about them. As soon as Dirty Harry arrives in San Paulo, he is forced to steal a van from a nursing home so he can chase a bank robber through the streets, and then Dirty Harry's friend Horace King gives Dirty Harry a bulldog named Meathead. Dirty Harry goes into a bar looking for information, and Ray forces Dirty Harry to have to knock her down. Later, at an empty beach called Buckman Cove, Jennifer kills Kruger, one of the rapists. And outside of Dirty Harry's hotel room, Meathead saves Dirty Harry from a mob hit-man. While trying to solve the murders of Wilburn and Kruger, Dirty Harry finds strong opposition from Lester Jannings, the police chief in San Paulo, and things begin to point towards Lester hiding a secret regarding the killings. Jennifer goes to the house of one of the rapists, a man named Tyrone. Tyrone begs Jennifer not to kill him, but after what Jennifer and Elizabeth were put through, Jennifer feels no mercy for Tyrone, so she shoots him in the groin, and then in the head. Later, Dirty Harry goes to Ray's house to get some information, and he sees Jennifer's car in the driveway, but he doesn't see Jennifer. Dirty Harry goes inside and sees Ray with Mick, the leader of the rapists. Ray and Mick know that Jennifer is after everyone who was involved in the rape, and they have planned to kill Jennifer. When Dirty Harry figures out what's going on, Dirty Harry believes that Jennifer has already been through too much over the past ten years, so after Dirty Harry is attack by Mick and his crew, and Jennifer is kidnapped by Mick, Dirty Harry sets out to rescue Jenifer and take down Mick and his crew. This is Clint Eastwood's fourth Dirty Harry film. In this movie, Harry's in hot water with his superiors, when he induces a heart attack on a criminal they have spent a great deal of time building a case on, and some criminals are gunning for him. So, to make the streets a little safer, Harry's sent to seaside town, to get some info on a man who was shot in the groin. When he gets there, the police chief doesn't exactly give him a warm welcome. And not long after his arrival, some of the town's residents are getting killed in the same manner. When Harry tells the chief his theory that the killer has a connection here but the chief just wants him to leave.