A washed-up writer is befriended by an Atlantic City enforcer. He falls in love with the enforcer's girlfriend, and the three lives become increasingly intertwined.

When the New York journalist Jake Bridges catches his girlfriend with another guy, he goes to Atlantic City to drink himself to oblivion. He is saved from a bar brawl by a small-time mobster Frankie, and Jake falls in love with Frankie's girlfriend Melissa. Jake soon also joins Frankie in his money-collecting duties.—Anonymous