him.
But the next day, when he tries to make love to her, she gets her husband's revolver and threatens him. He blurts out that there is no body in the lake. She disbelieves him, but driven by doubt goes to the lake to see. In the mud she stumbles over a corpse. Almost hysterical now, and feeling herself beyond all moral barriers, she throws herself wantonly at Joe-"Let's go to hell together, Joe!" But he has begun to feel pity lot her now and rejects her angrily.
We find out that Robert is conspiring with Hank (John Coe), Wilma's father. The arrival of Joe has upset their plans, which are to get rid of Jean so that Robert can get her money and marry Wilma. Hank makes an attempt on Jean's life, but is stopped by a furious Robert, who is against such direct action. The two make a plan. Joe, who has been growing suspicious, must be killed.
Robert tells Jean that together they will drug Joe and dump him in an abandoned car in a junkyard where bums often sleep. Then they will flee. Jean now wants to go to the police, but Robert dissuades her.
Joe, fearful for Jean, with whom he is falling in love, discovers that the body in the lake is Jean's lawyer, and that the lawyer had evidence of Robert's and Wilma's relationship. He later finds out that flank had faked the "accident," hitting Jean's car with a bag of sand and throwing himself into the water. The lawyer had been murdered by Hank, who had then substituted the real body for the nonexistent one. Jean is being framed by her own husband to hide his crime and maintain his hold over her.
But before Joe can tell Jean, Robert slips the drug into his drink. That night the unsuspecting Jean helps Robert place Joe in an abandoned car in the junkyard. In the morning Hank, who owns the junkyard, is to move the car into a giant scrap metal crusher, killing Joe. Another "accident."
In a terrifying dream that night, Jean hears Joe calling to her. The love that has grown up between the two of them is asserting itself. She awakes in horror, calls the police, and laces to the junkyard.
The automobile with Joe inside is about to he crushed. Jean desperately tries to stop Hank, who turns the machine on her. Robert, driven to fury by Hanks blunders, grapples with him. Younger and stronger, Robert forces the older man bark toward the deadly crushing machine. Wilma, hearing her father's cries, tries to save him, but Robert in a cold fury pushes him into the machine.
While the two men have been grappling, Jean frees the groggy Joe and the two escape in her car. Robert follows and corners them at the base of a huge darn. Joe, recovering now, faces Robert's pistol alone. But the gun jams and it is Joe who becomes the pursuer.
Robert is trapped and begins to climb the face of the great darn. Joe follows, but the desperate Robert makes it to the top and begins to climb over onto the roadway above. Wilma is waiting there for him. With a cry of vengeance, she pushes her lover to his death.
As the police arrive, Joe rejoins Jean at the bottom of the dam. Perhaps now there may be a chance for them to start over again.