Kidnappers target a millionaire to pay the ransom for their victim, a young girl from a poor family. The criminals are a husband who's failed at everything he's tried and a still-ambitious wife who'll leave him if he won't go along with her scheme. The child's mother is afraid to go to the police, but a nosy neighbor pieces together the story for the detectives. The husband is torn about the crime, because he loves children, but his wife is bitter from having to parent her younger siblings.