In Weehawken, New Jersey, police informant Roger Pitman tips off a couple of hijackers who steal a truck full of color televisions. As they unload the televisions, Roger requests a payment of one thousand dollars, but the men give him fifty, and refuse his request for one of the TV sets. Roger goes to the home of Sgt. Alex Brogan and asks for his money. Brogan pays him $250 and tells him not to come back. At a billiard hall, Marco Ruiz offers to include Roger on a big job. At the bar, Roger slides money to the bartender, and a woman named Sylvia provides him with a package of illegal drugs. Sgt. Brogan appears with the police, who hold up everyone at the establishment. Later, Roger meets Marco at a Laundromat and sees his bag of stolen jewelry. Brogan enters from the back and pulls his gun. Marco runs away, frightened, but is hit by a truck outside. Roger runs to Marco’s side, admonishing Brogan for scaring the man. When Brogan insults Marco, calling him a small-time creep, Roger takes offense. Later, Roger is the only person to attend Marco’s burial. One day, Brogan gives Roger $7,500 from a police discretionary fund to frame one of Roger’s best friends, Lattimore, for a crime. However, Roger takes the money and flies to Miami, Florida, where he pretends to be “Roger Smith” when checking into the Doral-on-the-Ocean Hotel, taking another man’s reservation. Back in Weehawken, Brogan is reprimanded by his boss, Harry, for losing their department’s entire contingency budget. After Harry takes the sergeant's badge away, Brogan agrees to take a week’s leave. Knowing that Roger has gone to Miami, Brogan sets out to find him. Meanwhile, Roger meets Sheila Morrison, a young woman sitting on a highway overpass. She asks if he is thinking about killing himself, and he asks her the same question. At a diner, Sheila confesses to Roger that no one has flirted with her since she has been in Miami. Roger offers to go to bed with her, but Sheila says she does not sleep with people that quickly, and mentions that she saved for a year to have a vacation, but nothing special has happened to her as she expected. Roger suggests they spend the day together and Sheila agrees. At a zoo, Roger admits that nothing seems to work out for him, and Sheila commiserates, saying she was recently heartbroken. Sheila encourages Roger to reveal personal information about himself, although Roger worries that if he tells her too much, she will not like him. The two go to a dog-racing track, where Roger loses one thousand dollars on a bet. When he admits to Sheila that he stole the money he is betting, she laughs in disbelief. At dinner, Roger insists he is a “hustler,” but Sheila thinks Roger is trying to seem more glamorous than he his. They return to Sheila’s hotel room, where Roger convinces a nervous Sheila that she is attractive, and they make love. The next day, Brogan provides the Miami Police Chief with mug shots of Roger, and the chief lectures Brogan on allowing Roger to steal from him. Walking in a park together, Roger insists he wants to marry Sheila, and she accepts his proposal. They return to Roger’s hotel room, where Brogan ambushes Roger and demands the money, but Roger says he spent it. Brogan kicks Roger to the ground, and informs Sheila that Roger is a criminal with a long record who just stole from the police force. Roger tries to give Sheila an engagement ring he bought, but Brogan takes it. At the jewelry store, Brogan tries to return the ring but the jeweler offers $600 in cash to buy it back, and Brogan takes it. Hoping to get a loan for the money he owes to Brogan, Roger seeks out his wealthy cousin Ralphie, who refuses to help and reminds Roger of his criminal past. Roger convinces Brogan to give him one hundred dollars, then buys a handgun. He attempts to hold up the gun store clerk but becomes scared and runs away when the clerk draws a gun on him. He returns to the boarding house where Brogan has secured two rooms for the threesome. Later, Roger attempts and fails to get a bank loan. That night, Brogan listens from the other room as Roger and Sheila stay up talking about their future. In the morning, Brogan reads aloud from a newspaper article about a rivalry in the local drug syndicate. Brogan suggests Roger steal from the syndicate, but Sheila rejects the idea. Nevertheless, the three stake out a drug deal that day, following the car with the money to the waterfront. Brogan holds up the money-handler, stealing his bag of cash, then speeds away with Sheila and Roger in the car. Pulling over, Brogan counts two thousand dollars and finds a package of heroin, guessing that its street value is fifteen thousand dollars. Sheila and Roger remind Brogan that he is a policeman and should not sell drugs, but he does not care. Agreeing to let Roger go, Brogan drops the couple off on the side of the road, insisting that Roger take one hundred dollars. Sheila and Roger laugh as they walk away.