Under pressure to clean up crime in the streets, Abe Rowan, chief of police, assigns Capt.

Danforth assures wife Pat the dangerous assignment is strictly temporary, determined to get out of police work for good.

He and second-in-command Detective Geddes cast their suspicions toward hoodlum Earl Swados, attempting to persuade another stripper, Mary Abbott, to turn state's evidence against him.

After charging her with prostitution, the cops spread the word that Mary is going to inform on Swados and the local crime boss, Leonard Ustick.

Complications arise when another detective, Strauss, shoots an innocent bystander and police are falsely accused of beating three young men, causing neighborhood tensions to rise.