Pete Ritchie (Raymond Burr), is known to be a criminal who smuggles drugs into America, and so the customs agents are seeking incriminating info about him. Madeleine Haley (Claire Trevor), an American cop, goes to work undercover and tries to get Pete to trust her and reveal more about himself. But then Johnny Macklin (Fred MacMurray) shows up unexpectedly along with a henchman, causing a violent incident to occur. Madeleine now has a dangerous situation to deal with while she is still trying to determine what is going on with the smuggling, which is more complicated than anyone had realized.