When his estranged wife Joan is found badly beaten after using loaded dice in a back-alley game, David Boothe looks back on how she came to this sorry state.

A reporter from Chicago, he is on an assignment at Boulder Dam, so he and his wife stay at a hotel in Las Vegas.

But the game lasts till dawn, and when David phones from the road, Ruth tells him Joan has not slept in her bed all night.

On her own again, Joan descends into a world of disreputable characters, partnering in Shreveport with a crooked gambler named Frenchy.

[2] The Philadelphia Inquirer was unimpressed: "The long story of her transformation from a happy wife to a fanatic who would shoot her husband’s last dollar is unfolded in all its far from fascinating detail.