After the L.A. judicial system disbars him following an angry outburst, recent law-school graduate Johnny Ramirez (Paul Muni) finds a job at a small casino south of the border. When Johnny's creative ideas help transform the failing casino into a high-class operation, the owner (Eugene Pallette) makes him the co-owner. But the owner's obsessive wife, Marie (Bette Davis), falls in love with Johnny, causing his life to spiral into a snare of jealousy, deceit and murder.