1949 New York City is still trying to recover from the effects of World War II while our slightly scarred detective, Jamie Dugan, is trying to forget the war's bloodshed and get back to what he does best, solve crimes. His remedy is through playing the ponies. His poor string of winless bets keeps him broke much to the chagrin of his friends. To ease his cash-flow problem, Jamie takes on a case of infidelity. Dugan's latest client suspects that her husband is giving her the run-around and Jamie has the photos to prove it, but when he tries to deliver them to his client, he finds her being whisked away to the morgue in the coroner's meat wagon leaving Dugan short the rest of his fee and his friend Morgan accused of the crime. It seems like a simple case of mistaken identity as the case starts to unravel, but it ends up anything but simple.