Gabby Maple (Bette Davis) has to work in her father’s desolate coffee shop and live there too, in the desert. She does not enjoy this life and desire to join her mom in France and live there instead. Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) arrives. He has failed as a writer, has no money and does not want to live anymore. He is still going to the Pacific because he wants to see it and possibly kill himself in it. Gabby’s boyfriend, Boze Hertzlinger (Dick Foran) is jealous of her attraction to Alan. Nobody knows yet that Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) is a terrifying killer who is coming for the diner along with his henchmen. Mantee plans to meet his girl there.