Raoul Leduc is a police inspector trailing a spy who plots to kidnap an important American atomic scientist. Joe Victor a gangster who is hired to carry out the abduction, balks when he learns what is at stake and helps Leduc out instead.
Agnes "Astra" Huston, a fortune teller at a run-down fair, is found strangled in her bedroom. As the police question five suspects, their interactions with her are shown in flashbacks from their point of view.
The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.
Bootleggers on the lam Frankie and Noll split up to evade capture by the police. Frankie is caught and jailed, but Noll manages to escape and open a posh New York City nightclub. 14 years later, Frankie is released from the clink and visits Noll with the intention of collecting his half of the nightclub's profits. But Noll, who has no intention of being so equitable, uses his ex-girlfriend Kay to divert Frankie from his intended goal.
Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder.
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Bank teller Mike Donovan (Barry Sullivan) takes the first step on the road to Perdition when he fails to report a $49,000 shortage. Accused of theft, Donovan is fired from his job. He is then prevented from finding other employment by Javert-like insurance investigator Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw). Despite many setbacks, Donovan attempts to clear his muddied name.
Unsuccessful writer Aylmer Franklyn takes the chance to change identities after he discovers a corpse. However, he soon finds himself accused of the murder of a maid at a near-by boarding house.
An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.
A family man – desperate for a job – latches onto a friend who encourages him into being a criminal.
A prison convict escapes through the Louisiana swamps.
Given a pardon from jail, Roy Earle gets back into the swing of things as he robs a swanky resort.
Gentleman gangster Max and his partner, Riton, pull off their last, most successful heist and find themselves comfortable enough to retire in the style they enjoy. However, Max confides the details of the theft to his younger mistress, Josey -- who has secretly taken up with ambitious young rival gangster Angelo. Angelo then has Riton kidnapped and demands the stash of gold as ransom, which threatens Max's dreams of the perfect retirement.
Eddie Darrow, seeking a mobster's widow in Macao, gets involved in a casino owner's affairs.
A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl, without knowing of their relationship. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.
Jewel thieves, murder, and a manhunt swirl around a sailor off a cargo ship in post-war London.
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.
Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.
Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.