An amnesiac wanders the streets of Manhattan, trying to solve the mystery of who he is.

James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Leslie Whitlock (Kevin McCarthy) offers James money to kill his wife, Ellen (Dana Wynter). He declines and tries to look up his old flame Lily (Barbara McNair), but discovers his own brother is now married to the sultry nightclub singer. James returns to Leslie, and the trio travel towards a mountain retreat. James and Ellen escape and try to find the murderer who had framed James years before.

Sequel to Cotton Comes to Harlem. Another bad influence is hitting Harlem and Gravedigger and Coffin Ed are the two cops who will stop it. Charleston Blue was a prohibition era black gangster, dead 4 decades. When he seems to have reappeared, once again slitting throats with his Blue straight edge razors, the two cops begin a complicated search for some answers.

Two waiters in Depression-era Arkansas get involved in the numbers racket.