Shehata Effendi is a clerk for a wealthy woman who is in dispute with her husband. Her husband divorced her a third time, so they resort to Shehata to marry her. Then the wealthy wife dies and he inherits her fortune, prompting him to think of marrying his old neighbor Asrar.

In Tiger Bay, the docklands of Cardiff, rough-and-tumble street urchin Gillie witnesses the brutal killing of a young woman at the hands of visiting Polish sailor Korchinsky. Instead of reporting the crime to the authorities, Gillie merely pockets a prize for herself — Korchinsky's shiny black revolver — and flees the scene. When Detective Graham discovers that Gillie has the murder weapon, the fiery young girl weaves a web of lies to throw him off course.