Hard-bitten police detective Jim Schuyler (Kirk Douglas) turns in his badge out of frustration with the system's increasingly lenient treatment of career criminals. Becoming a private eye, Schuyler takes his first case from slick defense attorney Tennessee Fredericks (Eli Wallach), who wants him to protect his beautiful client, Rena Westabrook (Sylva Koscina), who is about to stand trial for her husband's murder. Soon Schuyler finds himself drawn deeper than he expected into Rena's life.