Eleven-year-old Timmy (Macaulay Culkin) is about to be reunited with his ex-con father (Ted Danson), who he has not seen for years. Unfortunately he arrives to witness dad, now a pastry chef, preparing for one last heist to set him up for life. However, once the theft has taken place, Timmy hides the booty, and blackmails his father into spoiling him rotten in return for telling him the loot's whereabouts.

Warren Beatty's adaptation of the detective comic strip displays a big-screen comic book look of its own. In a 1930s American city, Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) takes a stranglehold on all underworld activities, disposing of his main rival Lips Manlis (Paul Sorvino) and nabbing his girlfriend Breathless Mahoney (Madonna). Dick Tracy (Beatty) is entrusted with the task of cleaning up the city, but problems on the home front, with the adoption of a young orphan, and the seductive come-ons of Breathless threaten to ruffle his composure.

Young Anna Madden (Charlotte Burke) becomes a cause for concern when she begins drawing the house which appears in her dreams. She finds that she can actually visit the house herself, and discovers it to be occupied by a disabled boy. However, back in reality, Anna is slipping in and out of consciousness and this results in her being placed in medical care. It appears that her harmless dream has now turned into a very real nightmare....