A series of murders involving a stripper are investigated by a hard-drinking reporter.

Jim Douglass arrives in the small town of Rio Arriba in order to witness the hanging of the four men he believes murdered his wife. When the convicts escape, Jim tracks them into Mexico, determined to see that justice is done. But the farther Jim goes in his quest for vengeance, the more merciless he becomes, losing himself in an unrelenting spiral of hatred and violence.

A Prohibition-era nightclub crooner has his career is cut short when his throat is slashed by a mob boss.