When a wealthy young heiress (Pamela Franklin) debarks from her flight to Paris, she's ushered into the limousine driven by Bud (Marlon Brando), dressed as a chauffeur, and taken to a remote country beach house by the ocean. She's being held by a nervous gang of kidnappers for ransom. The snatch was organized by a career petty criminal named Wally (Jess Hahn), who is looking to make one big score before calling it quits. Wally's junkie sister Vi (Rita Moreno) is an airline stewardess who arrived on the same plane as the victim and is in on the kidnapping. She is the lover of Bud, a longtime chum of her brother's. The only stranger taken into the gang is Leer (Richard Boone), hired by Wally to be the enforcer.