Bud Corliss (Robert Wagner) is a darkly handsome college boy so obsessed with wealth that he'll do anything to get it. When his rich girlfriend Dorothy (Joanne Woodward) gets pregnant and is threatened with disinheritance, Bud stages her suicide, sending her plummeting from the roof of a high-rise. It's the perfect crime until Dorothy's sister Ellen (Virginia Leith) begins to unravel Bud's deadly scheme.

Bud Corliss (Robert Wagner) is having trouble being accepted by the family of his comparatively-rich girlfriend, Dorothy Kingship (Joanne Woodward). Dorothy's pregnancy is only going to make matters worse. Instead of working their problems out, however, Bud coldly murders Dorothy and leaves false evidence that she committed suicide. When Dorothy's sister Ellen (Virginia Leith) decides to look into the death, Bud begins to wonder if he won't have to kill again. Lensed by Lucian Ballard, one of Sam Peckipah's favorite cinematographers.