Pat Novak, for Hire is set on the San Francisco, California waterfront and depicts the city Pat Novak knows - a dark, rough place where the main goal is survival. Pat Novak is not a detective by trade. He owns a boat shop on Pier 19 where he rents out boats and does odd jobs to make money.

The series is popular among fans for its fast-paced, hard-boiled dialogue and action and witty one-liners. Each episode of the programs, especially with Jack Webb, follows the same basic formula; a foghorn sounds and Novak's footsteps are heard walking down the pier. He then pauses and begins with the line "Sure, I'm Pat Novak . . . for hire". The intro theme would start, during which Pat gives a monologue about the troubles along the waterfront and his job renting boats. Jack Webb narrates the story as well as playing Novak. He is cynical, and throws off lines such as "Around here a set of morals won't cause any more stir than Mother's Day in an orphanage ". He then introduces the trouble in which he finds himself this week. The dialogue is a continuous stream of similes typically found in pulp fiction. In So Long, Dixie Gillian, Novak describes a lady entering his show this way: "She sauntered in, moving slowly from side to side like a hundred and eighteen pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was alright, too. It reminded you of a furnace full of marshmallows."

Typically, a person unknown to Novak asks him to do an unusual or risky job, or he is suspicious because it sounds too easy. But Novak reluctantly accepts and quickly finds himself in hot water in the form of an unexplained dead body.