Frankie Madison (Burt Lancaster), just out of prison, expects to pick up his bootlegging racket right where he left off. Unfortunately, his former partner, Noll Turner (Kirk Douglas), now a successful nightclub owner, has other ideas. Frankie turns to Noll's girlfriend, torch singer Kay (Lizabeth Scott), and hatches a scheme to bring down Big Business for good. Can Frankie's Prohibition-era strong-arm tactics get the job done?