[2] In a California city, Lt. Fred Parks (Max Showalter) interrogates drunken local baker Albert Willis (Gene Barry) about his possible connection to recent eastside robberies.

Chief Joseph E. Conroy (Sterling Hayden) enters just in time to hear Willis threaten revenge but is compelled to release him because he has read that councilman Edgar Goodwin (Frank Wilcox) is calling for an investigation of police brutality.

Willis returns to his wife Helen (Marcia Henderson) but slips out again that night and hours later, Parks is shot.

Undaunted, he asks his friend, private detective Matt Matthews (Don Haggerty), to help tail Willis.

Over the next few days, Willis grows disturbed by the shadows following him and tells Helen that he must leave town to clear his head.

A young local boy named Petey (Billy Chapin) finds Joe in the alley the next morning and, along with his uncle Charlie, minister to him in their apartment.

When Marianna, who lives upstairs from Petey, comes by to help them, she pockets Joe's photo of Willis, which is captioned: "Killer or family man?"

The next morning, Joe readies to go, stopping only to say goodbye to Marianna who quietly talks to him about the big mistakes she has made.

Just then, the goons start a fight and the bar erupts in confusion, allowing Joe and Marianna to race out the back door.