Detective Frank Keller has been on the force for 20 years and could retire, but he doesn’t want to. Work is all he’s got. When he gets home, he’s ready to howl, so he drinks a lot. And then he gets a murder case in Queens, a man is found naked and with a hole in the back of his head. Soon a similar murder occurs in Manhattan. What they also have in common is that both victims had given poetry advertisements to the same magazine. Detectives Keller and his partner Sherman place a similar ad in the magazine, to which Helen Kruger, who is clearly involved in the case, responds, but the experienced cop falls in love with her despite his suspicions.