Detective Marlow sets out to find the missing wife of a publishing magnate. Several smack-arounds, one dead gigolo, a few angry cops, a booze-soaked frame-up and one dame in the lake later, Marlowe finds the killer and finds he's looking at the business end of a gun. -- container.

During World War II, the Army recruits Navy officer Rip Crandall to command a battered old schooner for a top secret mission. Masquerading as a Japanese fishing boat, this nautical nightmare must smuggle a spy through the mine-infested waters of the South Pacific.