William Richert directs this movie based on Richard Condons 1974 novel, a roman a clef about the Kennedy family set several years after the President's assassination. Jeff Bridges plays the apolitical son of Pa Kagen (John Huston), a ruthless tycoon. While at sea aboard a tanker owned by his father, he hears the confession of a "second assassin" involved in his brother's murder. He returns to America in hopes of unraveling a conspiracy. Along the way, Bridges' life is put on the line as he faces a host of mysterious characters.

Despite its haphazard plot, Winter Kills is save by some good acting by Huston, Anthony Perkins as the shrewd business manager of the Kagen empire, Belinda Bauer as an enchantress, Sterling Hayden as a daft millionaire, and Dorothy Malone as Bridges' disturbed mother.