In The Promise to Pay, Philip Marlowe is approached by Garfield Randall, a man whose career hangs in the balance. Randall, a prominent figure in the business world, has found himself entangled in a gambling scandal that could ruin him. He hires Marlowe to retrieve a gambler's marker worth a thousand dollars, which he lost to Paul Naylor, a notorious gambler. The situation escalates when Randall reveals that a woman named Terry Dodge, who has evidence of his gambling, is demanding $20,000 to keep quiet. The stakes are high, not just for Randall's career, but for Terry's life as well.