Ignored by his alcoholic parents, Jimmy Wilson starts hanging around with some shady characters. After falling in love with a lounge singer, Jimmy tries to impress her by doing jobs for her shady boss. After one of these jobs goes bad, Jimmy ends up on the run. Eventually, he must confront the truth, his past, and his parents. The judge cites parental neglect in the case of a teenager (John Miljan) charged with murder.

After a jeweler hires a private detective to help him find $50,000 missing from his company, he is murdered while attending a society party; and the private eye, aided by his comely secretary, vies with a bumbling police detective to find the murderer among several suspects, including the dead man's daughter, her current husband, her former husband, and an ex-convict.

When phony stage mentalist Triton mysteriously acquires supernatural powers of precognition, he becomes frightened and abandons his act to live of anonymity.

被解雇的报社女记者安·米歇尔伪造了一封信给报社，署名“约翰·杜伊”（即无名氏），信上表示对这个充满恶瘤的社会充满失望，决心要自杀。报社为此不得不重新聘用了安来调查此事。然而，没想到此事最终引发了一场政治运动……

Buster Keaton's final silent feature, as well as the final film in which MGM allowed him any creative control.

流浪汉Frank Chambers（约翰·加菲尔德 John Garfield 饰）在路边的一间小餐馆里，被美丽的老板娘Cora Smith（拉娜·特纳 Lana Turner 饰）所吸引，正好那间餐馆正在招工，他便留了下来，成为一名服务生。餐馆老板Nick年纪比Cora大得多，Frank见有机可乘，便多次挑逗Cora，最后两人终于坠入爱河。两人准备私奔，走到半路却发现从此没了经济来源，便回到餐馆，决定谋害Nick，制造Nick出了意外的假象，他们就可以获得Nick的遗产。第一次行动阴差阳错地没有成功。第二次行动，他们成功把Nick杀害，却被一个检察官发现。Cora被告上法庭。在一个律师的诡计下，两人逃脱了法律的制裁。但他们的好日子却还没到来......
该片根据美国作家James M. Cain的同名作品改编。