Two women die under similar circumstances--Melchior Kimmel killed his wife, Walter Stackhouse did not kill his. Lieutenant Corby, investigating the Stackhouse case, links it with the unsolved Kimmel murder. Then begins a nightmare for the two suspected men. Corby's wish to get at the truth becomes perverted by his ambition into an almost insane desire to extract confessions. Soon all three are caught in a trap from which there is no escape.