Los Angeles police detective Lieutenant Bill Doyle and his partner, Captain Charlie Alidos, track a female fugitive wanted for murder to San Francisco.

Bill meets Kathy Ferguson, a San Francisco newspaper advice columnist, who has helped the investigation by locating the fugitive and gaining her trust.

Kathy's front-page story on the case leads to an offer of employment in New York City, but in spite of having declared she has no interest in marriage and homemaking, she abandons her career, marries Bill and moves to Los Angeles.

When Bill sees a poison pen letter that Kathy has received, he rushes to work and, in front of two police witnesses, punches Charlie.

When Alice is hospitalized after succumbing to years of mental strain as a policeman's wife, Pope decides to retire.

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, Howard Thompson called the film a "most curiously misguided dramatic missile" and criticized Stanwyck's performance: "[N]ever has she switched gears so abruptly during one performance as in this odd number ... As for Miss Stanwyck's transition from the nice, sassy gal in the press room to a maniacal stalker, we don't believe it.

"[2] In a review for the Los Angeles Times, critic Philip K. Scheuer wrote: "The woman's character is so completely amoral—as is the tone of the whole picture—that I never found it quite convincing.

"[3] A review in The Boston Globe also questioned the film's believability: "[T]he writer and director have so often telegraphed their punches, so often overstated the case, that it becomes a rather unbelievable, squirmy sort of tale.

"[4] Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Nelson spoofed the film via RiffTrax on February 23, 2024.