Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart star in this gritty crime drama in which nightclub "hostess" Mary Dwight Strauber (Davis) refuses to aid police in a murder investigation involving heartless gangster Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli). But when her sister (Jane Bryan) winds up dead, Mary changes her tune and cooperates with district attorney David Graham (Bogart). The tale is loosely based on the capture of mobster Lucky Luciano.