Barbara Stanwyck delivers a tour-de-force performance as a suburban housewife turned murderous femme fatale in this potent noir firecracker with feminist undertones. Kathy Ferguson (Stanwyck) is a successful newspaper columnist who gives up her promising career to marry a Los Angeles police detective (Sterling Hayden). Soon, however, the restless Kathy finds herself stifled by her new role as a homemaker and, frustrated by her husband's lack of ambition, concocts a devious plan to shake things up.