Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake star in This Gun for Hire, a hard-edged story of love, power and betrayal set in the seamy underworld of the 1940's. Raven (Ladd) is a cold-blooded professional killer who's been double-crossed by his client Willard Gates (Laird Cregar), owner of Nitro Chemical and a suspected traitor by the U.S. government. Ellen (Lake), a beautiful nightclub singer and working undercover is hired by Gates to sing at his club. A twist of events leads Raven and Ellen to join forces and before the case is wrapped up, someone will pay with his life.