Private detective David Ross has two apparently unconnected cases to investigate in the same day. In the first he is hired by a millionaire who paid a large ransom for his kidnapped daughter twelve years before, but she was never seen again. Now a woman has come forward who claims the young girl she raised is the millionaire's missing daughter. Later, Ross is contacted by a retired burlesque dancer who's about to publish her memoirs and possibly reveal the secrets of some important people, but someone is determined to stop her.
Hounded by the press for shooting a doctor, an ousted Los Angeles policeman works his own case.
A one-handed madman (he lost the hand while escaping a hanging) uses various detachable devices as murder weapons to gain revenge on those he believes have wronged him.
In 1920s rural Mississippi, Nancy Mannigoe, an African-American servant, is placed on death row for the murder of Temple Drake's infant child. Temple, the daughter of the governor, pleads with her father to exonerate Nancy of the charges, explaining that Nancy acted in haste to prevent her from resuming her affair with a roguish Cajun called Candy Man. Details of Temple's sordid past are uncovered as she begs mercy for her faithful servant.
Aliens from Outer Space are slowly switching places with real humans -- one of the first being a young man about to get married. Slowly, his new wife realizes something is wrong, and her suspicions are confirmed when her husband's odd behaviour begins to show up in other townspeople.