Original Story
Michael Chambers has come home to Austin, Texas to his mother who's starting a new life, to his brother whose driven by old jealousies, and to Rachel—the woman he married and then betrayed with his passion for gambling. Now she's together with Tommy, so Michael devises a plan to get Rachel out from under Tommy's control.
Novel
Burt Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, a man who seals his dark fate when he returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife Anna Dundee (Yvonne DeCarlo) eager to rekindle their love against all better judgement. She encourages their affair but then quickly marries mobster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). To deflect suspicion of the affair, Steve Thompson leads Dundee into a daylight armored-truck robbery.
