A crusading District Attorney is out to convict the head of a vicious murder-for-hire ring. But when his star witness is killed, Bogart must race against time to find the evidence he needs to bring down the mob boss. Told in a series of flashbacks, this tense, tough-as-nails crime thriller on the cutting edge of film noir was based on actual Murder, Inc. trials.

Tommy Gibbs is a tough kid, raised in the ghetto, who aspires to be a kingpin criminal. As a young boy, his leg is broken by a bad cop on the take, during a payoff gone bad. Nursing his vengeance, he rises to power in New York City's Harlem. Angry at the racist society around him, both criminal and straight, he sees the acquisition of power as the solution to his rage.