Plot
Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a down-on-his-luck drifter, gets pulled off a bus at the small hamlet of Walton because he does not have the $2.25 extra fare to take him to San Francisco. He finds a greasy spoon called Pop's Eats, where Pop (Percy Kilbride) is worried about waitress Stella (Linda Darnell) because she has not shown up for work for days. Ex-New York cop Mark Judd (Charles Bickford) tells him not to worry. Sure enough, the sultry Stella returns soon after. Stanton (like the others) is attracted to her, but she is unimpressed by his smooth talk and poverty.
Stanton cons his way into a reserved hotel room to sleep by pretending to know Professor Madley (John Carradine), a traveling fortune-teller. Stanton talks his way into a job with Madley. It turns out that no one is willing to buy tickets to the "spook act" because influential local spinster Clara Mills (Anne Revere) disapproves. Stanton gets to Clara through her inexperienced younger sister June (Alice Faye) and persuades them to attend the performance.
Madley puts on an entertaining séance to a large audience, ending the show by channeling Abraham Mills, the deceased father of Clara and June. Using information secretly dug up by his assistant Joe Ellis (an uncredited Olin Howland), Madley brings up the sisters' financial problems. The two leave the séance quite upset.
Meanwhile, Stanton gets to know Stella, watching her steal from the cash register and go out with men. Stanton falls in love with her. She, however, makes it clear that she wants a man who is willing to marry her and give her a home. He is so obsessed with her that he agrees to her terms.
To raise the money he needs to satisfy Stella, Eric romances and marries June, planning to divorce her as soon as he can. Clara, who has been burned by a man of Stanton's type, is unable to prevent their marriage. However, Stanton cannot stay away from Stella even on his wedding night. Instead of sleeping with his wife, he goes to see Stella. She has heard the news and has given up on him, but he explains his odd scheme. By the time he returns to his wife, she has fallen asleep, so he settles in for the night on the sofa.
The next day, Stella turns up dead. Judd is asked by the local police chief to investigate. He first tries to beat a confession out of Dave Atkins (Bruce Cabot), Stella's latest boyfriend, but Atkins has an airtight alibi. Stanton is also a strong suspect, having been seen quarreling with Stella shortly before her death. Judd tells him not to leave town.
Stanton flees to a seedy hotel room in San Francisco with June. He tells her all about his drifter's life of failed schemes. June tells Stanton that she loves him. The next day, June is taken into custody when she goes to the bank to withdraw her money.
Stanton returns to Pop's Eats, where Judd is waiting for him. Stanton proves Judd is the killer. Judd found out that Stella had agreed to marry someone else rather than wait for his wife to give him a divorce. Judd pulls out his gun, but Pop wrestles it away, and Judd is arrested. Outside, when June asks Stanton where they are going, he tells her, "Home."
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