Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) tells his girlfriend, Ann (Virginia Huston), about his past as he travels to a meeting with a gambler and criminal named Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). Sterling had hired Bailey in the past when Bailey was a private investigator; Sterling says his wife, Kathie (Jane Greer), had shot him and run off with a lot of money. But when Bailey met Kathie, she said she had not stolen money, and Jeff fell for her. Jeff’s partner Fisher (Steve Brodie) finds the two of them and they kill Fisher. Then Jeff discovers that Kathie had stolen Sterling’s money after all. In the present day, Sterling wants Bailey to do a new job to pay off his debt but the truth is that he is framing Bailey.