On the evening of his decoration for bringing a murderer to justice, Washington DC Police Captain Frank Matthews' wife, and her lover are murdered in bed. Jailed as the prime suspect, with the aforementioned murderer released on a technicality Matthews escapes in search of the man he believes to be the real killer.

"Patterns" was an American television play broadcast live on January 12, 1955, remade as a film the next year with some of the same cast. Fred Staples is the newest executive in a large firm. He strikes up a friendship with Andy Sloane, the Vice President to whom he nominally reports. Staples is good at his job and the company's hard-nosed president, Walter Ramsey, is pleased with his choice. Staples has a crisis of conscience when Ramsey tells him that he's been recruited to replace Sloane, someone who has devoted his entire life to the company at the expense of his family. Sloane knows what Ramsey is up to but digs in his heels and refuses to quit. Tragedy ensues forcing Staples to make a choice.

During the World War II in Italy, Sergeant Joe Mooney is leading his small squad on the front-lines but is ordered to avoid rescuing a soldier trapped in no man's land.

Merritt Blake, an American architect who is travelling in Spain, contracts the services of beautiful local interpreter Mari Zarubia. Sensing there may be something more going on, her jealous lover is not happy about the arrangement.

An undercover officer tracks waterfront corruption from California to New Orleans and back.