 Gabby (Bette Davis) lives and works at her dads small diner out in the desert. She can t stand it and wants to go and live with her mother in France. Along comes Alan (Leslie Howard), a broke man with no will to live, who is traveling to see the pacific, and maybe to drown in it. Meanwhile Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) a notorious killer and his gang is heading towards the diner where Mantee plan on meeting up with his girl.