A woman (Joan Crawford) who is disillusioned in her marriage and thinks that money can give her everything she wants, leaves him, reinvents herself with a new name and starts climbing up the social ladder using her sex appeal. However she gets drawn into business run by gangsters. Whilst the plot is nothing original, it is the performance of Joan Crawford that makes the film, as her quest for money blinds her to the source and consequences of where the money comes from.