Bobo (Jean Gabin), a brooding itinerant dock-worker, gets mixed up in a drunken brawl. Upon awakening, he is convinced that he has killed a man by his mercenary pal Tiny (Thomas Mitchell). Despairing at the thought of having committed murder and being blackmailed for the rest of his life by the treacherous Tiny, Bobo is able to find a few fleeting moments of happiness with Anna (Ida Lupino), a suicidal young girl whom he has saved from a watery grave.