Mary Joan Blondell is a showgirl who has built a stable life after a difficult past, Ruth Westcott Bette Davis works as a stenographer, and Vivian Revere Ann Dvorak is married to Robert Kirkwood, Warren William, a successful lawyer, with a young son named Robert Jr. The three women—Mary, Ruth, and Vivian—reconnect years later and share a familiar superstition: lighting a cigarette from the same match could spell misfortune, and Vivian, being the last to light up, is said to be the first to die.
Mary Joan Blondell remains grounded, balancing a sense of responsibility with a touch of glamour from her showgirl days, while Ruth continues her steady, practical life as a stenographer. Vivian, though living in relative comfort with her husband and child, grows weary of her routine and seeks something more exciting, even as she contemplates new horizons. Robert Kirkwood is a capable provider and, within this tangled web of loyalties, his relationship with Mary begins to test the bonds around him.
Before Vivian and Junior embark on a European trip, Mary slips aboard an ocean liner to attend a bon voyage party for friends, and the encounter becomes a pivot point. Michael Loftus Lyle Talbot, a gambler who flirts with Vivian, woos her with a promise of escape, and Vivian is drawn to the idea of leaving her mundane life behind. The moment the ship is due to depart, Vivian, with Junior in tow, walks away from the voyage and leaves the boat behind.
Vivian and Michael’s life soon takes a sharp turn toward despair. The couple drifts into a shabby, unchecked lifestyle, and Mary grows worried about Vivian’s neglect of her son. Robert, aware of Mary’s past but drawn to her stability, proposes, and Ruth is hired to look after Junior. The two families’ fates become linked as Mary and Robert are married on the same day his divorce from Vivian is finalized, sealing a new chapter for everyone involved.
But Vivian’s happiness is short-lived. She tumbles into drug addiction, and Michael falls into debt with the gangster Ace [Edward Arnold], who presses him to settle a $2,000 debt. When Michael tries to bluff Robert by threatening to expose Mary’s past, Robert refuses to pay and instead tries to protect the truth. In a desperate bid to raise money, Michael abducts Junior and holds him for a ransom, dragging Vivian deeper into danger.
Ace’s thugs locate the boy in the couple’s apartment, and Junior is brought into a perilous web of crime. The gang’s demand escalates to a staggering $25,000, pushing Vivian to the edge as withdrawal gnaws at her resolve. While the others scheme and panic, one gangster’s search for a fix among the chaos adds another layer of tension, and the city’s lawmen begin to close in as the net tightens around the kidnappers.
As the interrogation and fear mount, a brutal decision is made: the gang contemplates killing Junior, but Michael balks at the deed. Enraged, the gangsters take matters into their own hands and kill Michael, leaving Vivian to reckon with the devastating consequences of their actions. In a last, desperate bid to save her son, Vivian overhears the plot and hides Junior, then writes a lipstick message on her nightgown revealing his location. When the gangsters burst into the room, Vivian leaps from the fourth-floor window to shield Junior, sacrificing herself but guaranteeing his survival.
Back home, with the crisis resolved, Mary and Ruth reaffirm their bond and the shared ritual that began their intertwined fates. They light identical cigarettes from the same match and, in a quiet moment of closure, drop the flame onto the hearthstone, snuffing it out as a symbol of the danger that once hovered over their lives and the fragile, hard-won peace that remains.
