As early as December 2010, Anderson intended to adapt Thomas Pynchon's "Inherent Vice", but because the funds for another new film "The Master" were in place earlier, "Inherent Vice" was temporarily shelved. "Inherent Vice" has a shell similar to Chandler's detective novels. Los Angeles private detective Doc unexpectedly meets his ex-girlfriend Shasta and hears from her an unproven story, a bizarre kidnapping case, and the victim - her current lover - is a real estate developer "with billions of dollars". Doc knows that "love" is an ambiguous word that can cause a series of troubles at any time, but he still bumps into Shasta's story by accident, and gets deeper and deeper into it. Surfers, pimps, drug dealers, rock musicians, loan sharks who have committed murders, and all kinds of people appear and disappear...