Shaft (Jackson) is a P.I. and a sex machine who fights crime in New York City. His present mission is to track the whereabouts of the only witness (Collette) to a murder whose killer (Bale) keeps getting off when tried.

Helped by his sidekick Rasaan (Rhymes), his partner (Williams) and his uncle (Roundtree), Shaft must keep the witness alive long enough to testify.

Based on a novel by Ernest Tidyman.