In 1931, Barbara Blandish, Kim Darby, a Missourian meat heiress, is robbed by three men who panic after killing her boyfriend and end up kidnapping her. Their plan unravels quickly when they’re ambushed at their hideout by Eddie Hagan, Tony Musante, who happened to witness the crime, and by the rest of the notorious Grissom Gang.
Barbara is taken and held by the gang, including Slim Grissom, Scott Wilson, a mentally handicapped thug who develops a troubling, conflicted attachment to her. Ma Grissom, Irene Dailey, the gang’s ruthless boss, seems unfazed by danger as she orders a ransom be sent to Barbara’s father, John P. Blandish, Wesley Addy, demanding a million dollars for Barbara’s return. Yet Ma’s calculating scheme is not really about bringing Barbara home; she has her own brutal sense of control, and the plan to kill Barbara is met with resistance from Doc Grissom, Don Keefer, Ma’s husband, who would rather not cross the line into murder.
Private detective Dave Fenner, Robert Lansing, is hired by Barbara’s father as weeks pass. Fenner begins with a rough edge, insulting Slim as a “halfwit” and trying to push Barbara away, but she discovers a disturbing truth: the only thing keeping her alive is Slim’s possessive obsession with her. Slim, in turn, pledges to defend her and to kill any gang member who harms her, and a reluctant bond forms between them.
Meanwhile, Anna Borg, a nightclub singer played by Connie Stevens, is left ignorant of the fates of her fellow kidnapper and lover. She finally confronts Eddie, threatening with a gun, only to be lied to about her lover’s fate, and then she becomes entangled with Eddie, who murders two men who hold knowledge about the crime. Months slip by as Fenner, pressed for ideas, poses as a theatrical agent who might help Anna’s singing career, hoping to draw out information.
Fenner learns more about the vanished Barbara and the broader criminal web by getting Anna talking about past associations, inching closer to the truth of where Barbara might be. This reckless pursuit culminates in tragedy: Eddie kills Anna, then targets Barbara, only to meet Slim’s lethal resistance as Slim stabs him to death. Ma Grissom, showing no signs of mercy, uses a machine gun to fight the pursuing police and turns on her own husband Doc when he tries to surrender. In the end, Slim dies amid a hail of bullets, and Barbara’s heart weighs heavy as she weeps for him; her father, weary and disgusted, walks away, leaving Barbara to face the consequences of a world where loyalty and treasure collide with violence and survival.
