The MGM crime reporter introduces Edward Swain of the International Bonding Company, he, who in demonstrating that crime does not pay, tells of the unusual case of bank teller Al Douglas. Douglas went to the authorities to admit that he had embezzled $200,000 of the bank's money, but that he had lost it all through spending it and gambling among other things. Douglas' statement is only partially true as he had actually buried the money in what he believed was a secret, hidden location. He figured he could serve a short amount of time in prison - his ultimate sentence being five to ten years, he aiming for the shorter in being the model prisoner - then exit the prison at the conclusion of his sentence a free man to live off the buried money without a worry. What he did not count on is that a lot can change even in five years. As that belief entered his psyche, he began to do more desperate and extreme measures to ensure that he could live free with that money, all at the expense of other things in his life.