His presence there is part of a caper involving a fictitious patient, on whose behalf he gains access to his physician's bag in the baggage car.

Bruckner and the false patient, supposedly infected with polio, disembark at a remote small town with a hospital, which is also far from any scheduled train stop, and escape with the money in an ambulance.

In response, the insurance company assigns claim investigator Charlie Norman to the case, forcing him to postpone his vacation to Mexico with his wife Ruth the next day.

Gradually, evidence starts to surface indicating that the thieves stole the ambulance just before the robbery, then ditched it in the desert, escaping in a stolen helicopter.

Bruckner, trying to escape to Mexico with Linda and his share of the loot, panics during a routine customs check and tries to force his way across the border, but is killed by police.

Charlie also discovers that an unsuspecting Ruth has tried to pull a practical joke on him by substituting fishing gear for his work reports in the briefcase.

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Milton Esterow wrote: "The latest Hollywood triple-threat is Mark Stevens, the gentleman currently portraying one of television's crusading editors.

... Mr. Stevens has shed his video zealousness against evil and become an insurance investigator on the wrong side of the law, the mastermind of a $500,000 train robbery and a ruthless killer.