Martin Rome (Richard Conte), a hardened criminal, is in a hospital room awaiting surgery for wounds he received in a shootout where he killed a police officer. At the hospital, he is visited by members of his family and his girlfriend, Teena Ricante (played by 15-year old Debra Paget), as well as by police detectives Candella (Victor Mature) and Collins (Fred Clark). The officers question Rome about a jewel robbery and murder, for which another man has already been caught and sentenced to death. Candella especially despises Rome for having turned to crime though they had been childhood friends from the same poor Italian-American neighborhood. Rome is also visited by W.A. Niles (Berry Kroeger), a shady lawyer, who attempts to coerce Rome into confessing to the jewel robbery, threatening to harm Teena. Rome reacts by trying to strangle the lawyer. Later, Rome charms his nurse, Miss Pruett (Betty Garde), into hiding Teena from Niles and the police at her own apartment.