A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.

A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Morgan, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl, without knowing of their relationship. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Morgan for romancing his girl.

The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.

Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.

From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.