The bodies of five unidentified foreign sailors are found murdered on the San Pedro, California, waterfront. Soon afterward, more than $1 million in counterfeit bills appears in circulation. Secret Service Chief Dolan, who suspects that the sailors' deaths and the counterfeit money are linked, sends undercover agent Don Owens to San Pedro to investigate. Carrying a high-powered rifle, Owens checks into a seedy hotel and offers a reward for information about a missing shipmate. Pawnbroker Randolph Riker offers to help; instead he has Owens robbed. Owens is nursed by Angie Peterson, an embittered, divorced cocktail waitress, who becomes emotionally involved with him. The next day, Owens is the victim of a frameup when Riker plants a stolen necklace in Owens' room and then calls the police. Convinced that Owens is a professional killer, Riker bails him out of jail and puts him in touch with three foreigners headed by a trader, Rajeski. Owens is taken to an airport and ordered to kill Dolan when he arrives with East European forger Strega, who is suspected of being part of the counterfeit ring. At the last minute, however, Owens kills one of Rajeski's henchmen. The gang members are rounded up during the pandemonium that ensues, and Dolan arranges for Owens to make his getaway, issuing a press release stating that the sniper-killer escaped capture.