In a sunlit Miami hotel room, the tension snaps into action as Andy Hammon [Donald Sutherland] draws his weapon and ambushes Tony Lacava [Buffy Dee], a notorious jewelry fence known in the underworld as “The Fat Man.” The confrontation ends with Hammon reclaiming a priceless diamond necklace Lacava had secreted beneath his clothes, a opening gambit that instantly sets a wary, intricate game in motion. The scene lays out Hammon’s calm precision and his ability to move through rooms of risk with cool calculation, while Lacava’s bravado is shown to be as brittle as glass when faced with a determined operative who knows how to take back what was once his.
At a nearby garage, Hammon’s path crosses Paula Booth [Jennifer O'Neill], a wealthy young woman whose life is anchored by privilege yet shadowed by danger. Paula leaves her car for repairs and, in a moment of brash provocation, Hammon makes a crude comment, drawing a furious reaction from her and earning the ire of her father, Paul Booth [Patrick Magee], who fires the volatile operative on the spot. Not one to back away from a challenge, Hammon seizes Paula’s car in a bold theft, and Paula pursues him with a mix of resolve and disbelief, chasing him across the city until a draw bridge interrupts the pursuit and buys Hammon a narrow escape. The chase underlines Hammon’s resourcefulness and Paula’s growing awareness that there is more to the man than a reckless thrill seeker.
The tale threads forward when Hammon returns to Paula’s home, and the two cross a line they did not intend to cross. He presents himself openly as a criminal willing to form a partnership, a move that unsettles Paula but also tempts her with the possibility of control and profit. In a quiet moment that crackles with danger, Hammon reveals the necklace once again, using it as proof of his grasp on the situation and a lever to open negotiations. Paula, smart and cautious, does what she often does best—she documents the encounter and conveys the information to her father, creating a political and legal minefield that neither side can ignore. The dynamic between the two characters deepens the moral ambiguity of the plot, showing how people drift toward collaboration even as they fear betrayal.
Into the unfolding drama steps Ford Pierce [Robert Duvall], a Department of Justice official who becomes a blunt conduit for the truth behind Lacava’s murder. Pierce presents Hammon with Lacava’s body and reveals a wider web of scrutiny: Paula Booth, Paul Booth, and their associate Eddie Stell [Jon Cypher] are all under investigation due to the Booth family’s accumulating, unexplained wealth. Eddie’s warning voice—suggesting that Hammon poses a threat to a lucrative future deal—remains in Paula’s ear, but she pushes back, refusing to be cowed by threats. The tension intensifies as Hammon survives an assault by the very thugs who killed Lacava; Paula’s timely arrival interrupts the attack and allows Hammon to reveal a startling revelation: he is an insurance investigator from Chicago who has learned of a forthcoming jewelry shipment, a clue that promises both peril and opportunity.
The action then moves to Chicago, where a jewelry store robbery becomes a pivotal turning point. Pierce and his agents follow leads on Eddie and Paula, but the chase ends in silence as both escape their pursuers. Hammon, ever precise, follows Paula to a meeting with Eddie and the Chicago robbers, where the stolen jewels surface in a high-stakes exchange. The pursuit then shifts to Nassau, where Hammon at last engages with Paula and her contact, Peter Brinker [Eric Braeden], offering half a million dollars for the jewels and signaling a shift from mere pursuit to a calculated negotiation. Hammon quickly deduces a crucial detail: the stolen gems are being recut and marketed as new pieces, a twist that reframes the entire heist as a complex con with shifting value and risk.
Brinker becomes a key pivot in the larger scheme: he collects the jewels only to be robbed by a gang hired by Hammon, and he then tries to cash in by claiming the insurance money. The plot thickens as the leverage of the recut jewels begins to tilt between greed and justice, forcing Hammon to navigate a perilous landscape where loyalty is a rare currency. The Bahamas becomes the next stage of the intricate plan, where Hammon’s employers demand a signed statement from Paula asserting that the recut jewels are the same as the stolen ones. Paula’s assent to this demand marks a turning point in the fragile alliance, giving Hammon the leverage he needs to negotiate or betray as the moment dictates.
As negotiations move toward a tense conclusion, Hammon secures a deal that promises Paula immunity and a substantial sum—$600,000—provided she accompanies him to recover the jewels. The agreement is sealed in a cloud of calculated risk and mutual dependence. Yet, as they prepare to move, Eddie bursts onto the scene once more, seizing the jewels for himself and triggering a final, police-driven chase. The ending leaves the observer with a stark image of pursuit and consequence: while Eddie races toward a desperate escape, Hammon and Paula watch from the sidelines, their fates entwined with a case that collapsed and reassembled itself around the unstable axis of wealth, deception, and the unsteady line between crime and justice.
Throughout the story, the cast performs with a cool restraint that keeps the tension tight without losing clarity. The film’s world is built on the delicate balance between risk and reward, with every character walking a tightrope where a single decision can tip the scales toward fortune or disaster. From the initial diamond recovered in Miami to the Bahamas-set negotiations and the final pursuit, the tale never loses its focus on motive, consequence, and the ever-present question of who truly profits when the dust settles. The performances by the core players, including the steady authority of Robert Duvall and the calculating charm of Donald Sutherland, anchor a narrative that thrives on the slow burn of plot twists and the quick, decisive steps of high-stakes crime.
Two notable supporting threads echo through the film: the loyal, calculating presence of Patrick Magee as Paul Booth and the menacing, poised energy of Jon Cypher as Eddie Stell, whose loyalties flicker as dramatically as the necklace’s reflected light. The undercurrent of danger extends to the minor but memorable appearances by Eric Braeden as Peter Brinker, who shifts from ally to liability in a heartbeat, and the pair of jewelers who populate the plot’s more glamorous moments, brought to life by Zvee Scooler and Sol Frieder. Even the film’s texture is enriched by the stern presence of Charles J. Swepeniser as Robber #1 and Edward Biagianti as Robber #2, characters who help to tighten the noose around the central con. The world of the Booths also features the Head Matron, portrayed by Berenice Clayre, whose role adds a layer of institutional gravity to the story’s most claustrophobic moments.
