In the heart of Little Italy, Gino Monetti (Edward G. Robinson), an ambitious banker and domineering patriarch, builds an empire on abuse and illegality. When he is indicted, three of his sons betray him and seize the bank; the only loyal one, lawyer Max (Richard Conte), is sent to prison through a scheme devised by his brothers. Mankiewicz frames the story in flashback, blending noir and melodrama: a portrait of a family “haunted” by its patriarch, where vengeance takes shape and then falters, until it becomes clear that the true ghost is Gino’s power.