Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a young Vietnam veteran with a criminal record, who gets fired from his job as a migrant laborer on a California produce farm run by the mean-spirited camp manager Bob Rodgers (Robert Webber). Ryan then meets and teams up with the seductive Nancy Barker (Leigh Taylor-Young) the secretary and mistress to the unscrupulous owner Ray Ritchie (James Daly). When Ryan takes another job as a cleaner at a local motel owned by Sam Mirakian (Van Heflin) a local justice-of-the-peace, Nancy again approaches Ryan to help her rob Ritchie's safe in his house which allegedly has $50,000 of payroll money. Ryan reluctantly agrees to help with the heist, but becomes highly distrustful of Nancy, suspecting she may double-cross him to keep all the money for herself, and vice versa with her over him.