Lucie Ortega, a beautiful nightclub singer at the Club Saludos, contacts Rio for help. She needs to leave Buenaventura immediately to be with her sick mother in the Andes but cannot leave unless her boss at the club pays her the 75 million Pesos he owes her. Rio - not knowing that Lucie has been sent to him by the always unreliable Furman - naturally agrees to help an attractive damsell in distress, and goes to the Club Saludos and gets the money from Lucie's boss, Mesarigos. Shortly afterwards, Mesarigos is found murdered, and Lucie and the money have vanished. Rio, who was Mesarigos' last visitor, gets charged with murder.