The twenty-four-year-old narrator hero Frank Chambers wanders around America, without stopping anywhere for a long time. So now, having gotten a job working for the Greek Nick Papadakis, the owner of a gas station and a diner near Los Angeles, he is sure that he will soon go on the road again. But a meeting with the black-haired Kora, the wife of Papadakis, changes his plans. They are burned by the fire of all-consuming passion.
Cora tells Frank that he loves him and hates her husband. Lovers plot the murder of a Greek, intending to furnish him as an accident in the bathroom. But the light goes out at the wrong time, and Kore does not manage to complete the carefully designed operation. The Greek gets to the hospital with a skull injury, and although the doctors are surprised by the nature of the injuries, no trouble for Cora and Frank should be.
Frank offers Kore to leave her husband, a column and a diner, but Cora hesitates. Then Frank leaves alone, but not far. Papadakis accidentally meets him in the town, where he earns a game of billiards, and persuades him to return. Kora pushes Frank to make a second attempt to get rid of the Paladakis: the Greek wants a child, which is why Kora turns her heart out.
A new plan - with a staging of a car accident - is being implemented. Papadakis is killed by a wrench, the car with Frank is flying downhill, the disheveled Cora stops on the road, begging for help.
Frank with broken arms and ribs ends up in the hospital. The prosecutor’s office is taking up the case, and the position of Kora and Frank is becoming very precarious: the interests of the insurance company are affected, and she spares no money for investigations. If it turns out that Papadakis died as a result of a traffic accident, the company will lose ten thousand dollars. Prosecutor Sekket grabs hold of Kora and Frank with a stranglehold, and they're about to admit it. Under prosecutorial pressure, Frank lodges a complaint against Cora, accusing her of intent to kill him, otherwise the prosecutor may see a conspiracy between them.
On the advice of the overseer, Frank turns to lawyer Katsu. He promises to help, but at the first hearing recognizes Cora guilty. She desperately gives written testimony, where she confesses to the murder and also talks about the first failed assassination attempt. However, she denies that she knew about insurance. Katz takes her testimony and begins to act. It soon turns out that he was not going to betray customers, but only did a clever distracting maneuver, lulling the opponent’s vigilance.
Katz finds out that the Greek had two more insurance policies, and if Kora is found guilty of killing her husband, the other two companies will have a hard time - there is a statement by Chambers about the injuries he received. Insurance companies are forced to negotiate, and the detective acting on the instructions of the first company changes his testimony: there was no intentional murder, there was only careless driving, for which Cora receives conditionally six months.
Katz is so happy to defeat Sacket’s old rival that he doesn’t even take money from his clients, and they gain not only freedom, but also ten thousand dollars of insurance. The main prize of Katz is the one-hundred-dollar check written by the prosecutor, which he argued with the lawyer, claiming that Kore couldn’t get out.
But freedom and money do not bring joy. Torah and Frank's memories of how they betrayed each other are too fresh. The Paladakis affair raised too much dirt.
The connection, however, continues, although the past rapture has disappeared. Lovers drink a lot and quarrel a lot - primarily because of leaving, as Frank suggests, or staying, as Cora insists.
But Cora's mother falls ill, and she leaves for her in Iowa. In her absence, Frank met a pretty blonde Mudge Allen. She offers Frank to go somewhere far away, but it all ends with a vacation in Mexico. The sudden return of Cora, who buried her mother, changes their plans.
There is someone Kennedy who previously worked for Katz. He has a statement from Kora, which may still cause them a lot of trouble, and is ready to sell it for twenty-five thousand. But the blackmailer underestimated his “clients”, who manage to not only take his gun away from him, but also force them to summon their accomplices with incriminating evidence. So, Kennedy and his buddies go away sloppy, and Frank burns the original, copies and negativity. He tries to encourage Cora, assuring her that this is over, but she does not share his optimism: “Everything is over, you say? Original, copies, negative? But it’s not over with me. I have a million such copies, no worse than you burned. In the head. ”
The danger once again passed Cora and Frank, but there is no idyll at all. Cora learns about Mudge. Their relationship is on the verge of breaking. One day Frank catches Cora with a suitcase - she wants to leave. An explanation follows, from which, among other things, Frank finds out that Cora is pregnant. She wrote a note where she tried to explain everything, put it in the cash register, but the departure still did not take place. Frank wants Cora to become his legal wife. She agrees. For the first time in recent months, the past does not scare them. They are thinking about the future.
Soon, during sea bathing, Kora begins to have severe pain. There is a real danger of a miscarriage. Frank puts her in the car and takes her to the hospital. Every minute is worth its weight in gold, and it adds gas. But he can’t get ahead of the truck, which is terribly disturbing. Then he makes an attempt to go round him on the right, contrary to the rules of the road, and this leads to trouble. The car has an accident. The bark dies in place, Frank is safe and sound.
Prosecutor Sekket gets a great chance to get even with lawyer Katz, and he does not intend to miss him. The lawyer takes from Frank everything that he received from the insurance company. He fights like a lion, but all his efforts are in vain. The fatal role is played by the very note that Cora left in the cash desk in front of her failed departure. There she writes not only that she loves Frank, - the whole story of Papadakis pops up again, and in the most unfavorable light. This does not decide Frank's favor. From the very beginning, the judge was opposed to him, and the jury took only five minutes to reach a verdict of “guilty”.
Frank sits on death row and finishes his story.
He is thinking about Kore. He is haunted by the thought that then, in the car, in the last moments before death, Cora might have thought that he still decided to kill her. He wants to believe in the correctness of the priest, Father McConnell, who assures him that there is life after death. He just needs to meet with Cora and explain everything to her.
His earthly existence is drawing to a close. Justice does not hesitate, and all petitions for clemency are rejected.
The last paragraph of the novel is: “They came for me. Father McConnell says prayer helps. If you read to this place, pray for me and for Kora, so that we are together, no matter where ... "
