In San Francisco in 1870, Ada Stritch [Mercedes McCambridge] owns a bank teetering on collapse as a run drains its reserves. She needs $3 million to keep the doors open, and in a moment of desperation she turns to Rip MacCool [Claude Jarman Jr.], a wealthy man she despises, proposing a high-stakes poker wager: if Ada wins, Rip will hand over the money; if not, he takes the bank. Standing with them are Johnny Sanderson [Barry Sullivan], a newspaperman, and Flutey Johnson [John Hoyt], an old acquaintance who both carry grievances with Rip. The trio agrees to the game, a dramatic test that will decide the fate of the bank and reveal long-buried tensions.
The tale shifts back fifteen years to explain how these people first collided. Ada, a widow, ran a small hotel she hoped to sell. Rip and his partner Shocker set their sights on her, with Rip courting her and then offering a tempting deal: $3,000 in cash plus shares in the Mona Lisa gold mine. Ada accepted, only to learn later that the stock was worthless, a realization that sowed seeds of distrust.
Meanwhile, Johnny Sanderson once dreamed of a different life. After a boxing defeat, Rip helped him find work, and when a vein of gold appeared at the Mona Lisa mine, Rip’s stock suddenly surged to about $250,000. Johnny’s affections turned toward Lily Douvane [Arlene Dahl], a beautiful singer who, seeking security, married Rip for his money. Their loveless union produced a baby boy named after Johnny, a living symbol of a bond broken by ambition.
Rip’s pattern continued, bringing more heartbreak. Lily demanded a divorce, $1 million in a settlement, and custody of their child. Johnny cared for the baby and for Zoe Carnot [Paula Raymond], the nanny who becomes entangled in Rip’s spiraling affairs. Rip proposed to Zoe, only to provoke anger and tragedy when she discovers she is pregnant and, under mounting pressure, mortgages their home. She later loses both her fortune and their newborn in childbirth, a cruel twist that deepens the tangle of loyalties and resentments.
Shocker, the miner who stood by Rip in youth, eventually lays bare how the man who stands before them became so cold and calculating. At 16, with his parents’ funeral debt looming, he worked in a mine just to survive, and money came to mean everything. Armed with this painful truth, Ada decides to take the gamble in the final hand.
In the climactic moment, Rip accepts Ada’s challenge and plays with grace, effectively letting Ada win the pot, which saves the bank. Yet the triumph rings hollow to all who know him, and they are left to wonder whether Rip truly opened his heart after all, or simply held the winning hand all along. The story weaves together love, betrayal, and the cost of wealth, offering a portrait of a man who navigates fortune and fear in equal measure, with a bank’s fate hanging on a single, fateful game.
