As Joseph Pattison is sentenced, he warns District Attorney Jim Stowell of retribution. After Pattison is publicly executed, Jim counts the eleven executions he has prosecuted on an abacus made with miniature skulls, reckoning that he has twenty-four more to go. Soon after the Tatler publishes rumors of an affair between Jim's wife Lucy and a graduate student, Phil, "Sharpy," Jim's secretary, reminds him of his wife's birthday. As the Stowells leave home for a dinner celebration, Jim is shot by an associate of Pattison, but in the hospital, the bullet proves only to have grazed Jim, and Dan, his press aide, regards the incident as a publicity triumph. Jim, who has neglected his wife for his work, decides to take a long-delayed honeymoon. After returning to his office, he finds Kirk, his aide, roughly interrogating Professor Shaw MacAllen. Jim takes MacAllen aside and apparently tries to console him, convincing him to confess to murdering his unfaithful wife. Jim then abruptly excuses MacAllen, because he secretly had recorded the confession, and takes a copy of the recording to add to his collection. MacAllen's wealthy relatives hire distinguished lawyer David Morrow for the defense, but Jim is determined to demand the death sentence for MacAllen, because he does not believe in the concept of a "crime of passion." During the summertime trial that attracts national attention, Jim requests that Lucy stop seeing Phil, as he is head of a student committee supporting MacAllen. One evening during the trial, Jim returns home, and he and Lucy unconsciously re-enact "the kiss before the mirror," as MacAllen's confession has been labeled by the press. Jim listens again to the recording of MacAllen, then follows Lucy to Phil's home. He is about to shoot the couple when he realizes how his ruthless ways have almost caused him to murder the one he loves. The next day, Jim, still dazed, announces that the prosecution will lower the charges against MacAllen to second degree murder. Jim then asks Lucy, who is leaving, to forgive him and start anew. At that moment, Phil and Elizabeth, his girl friend, dash in and announce that they have just been married, with help from Lucy. Although reporters suspect Jim has been bribed, he is not concerned, and informs Dan that he is leaving on a vacation with Lucy. He then tells Sharpy to smash the abacus.