During the Korean War, Matt saves the life of his buddy, Vince, who promises that someday he'll repay Matt by cutting him in on a million dollars. Eight years later Matt is in the midst of a rapidly disintegrating marriage to Nina, a man-hungry alcoholic. Vince suddenly reappears for a reunion with Matt, telling him that enemies of a Central American dictator have hijacked $3.5 million, and that he knows how he can get hold of the money and collect a large reward he'll share with Matt if he will help recover the money. Matt is skeptical, but after a particularly violent quarrel in which he leaves his wife, he agrees to go along with Vince, provided there is no gunplay.
Korean War veteran Matt Jameson works in Los Angeles as an engineer for his father-in-law, E. J. Malden. His marriage to loose-moraled, alcoholic Nina is disintegrating, and there is a growing feeling of affection between himself and Malden's secretary, Liz. One day he is visited by Vince Biskay, a Marine buddy whose life Matt saved during the war. To repay Matt, Vince offers him half the reward for help in the recovery of $3.5 million stolen by enemies of a Central American dictator. When the money arrives at a San Francisco airport, they manage to make off with it, but Vince is seriously wounded in a gun battle with some Latin thugs. Going to Matt's house they hold out there until Vince recovers. Nina makes advances toward Vince; and when Matt learns that Vince has no intention of returning any of the money, he forces him to take it and get out. A short time later, the drunken Nina falls to her death from a second-story balcony during an angry encounter with Ruth, her maid. Matt finds the body, panics, and buries it in cement. Returning home, he is beaten up by the Latin thugs. The fight reopens a head injury Matt suffered in the war, and he loses his memory; but after Vince is killed in an automobile crash in Mexico and the money is found in his car, Matt gradually recalls the whole story. Nina's accidental death is verified by Ruth and Liz, and Matt is at last free to begin a new life with Liz.
