To gangstere ankommer til den lille by Brentwood, New Jersey. De lægger ikke skjul på, at deres mål er at dræbe en mand kendt som 'Swede'. De finder ham hurtigt, men overraskende nok gør han ikke spor modstand. Det bliver op til forsikringsmanden Jim Reardon at undersøge drabet nærmere. Han opsøger og interviewer de folk, der kendte Swede og optrevler derved en tragisk historie, der naturligvis involverer en kvinde.

Langt ude på landet i Californien driver den græske immigrant Nick Papadakis (John Colicos) en lille café sammen med sin smukke og yngre kone Cora (Jessica Lange). Cora er træt af sine ægtemand og ville ønske, at hun kunne drive stedet alene. Da den charmerende laps Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) dukker op, starter de to en affære og lægger en plan for fremtiden - en fremtid uden Nick. Historien er filmet flere gange, dels i Hollywood, dels i andre lande.

Da den populære horror-forfatter Sutter Cane forsvinder, bliver forsikringsagenten John Trent sendt af sted for at se nærmere på omstændighederne. Hans undersøgelser bringer ham til den lille by Hobbs End, hvor Canes rædselsvisioner tilsyneladende udspiller sig i virkeligheden.

Vi er i swingin´ New York i 1940. CW Briggs er forsikringsdetektiv og knaldhamrende dygtig til det...Nå, ja, det er i hvert fald hvad han igen og igen fortæller forsikringsselskabets nyudnævnte effektivisering-ekspert, Betty Ann ”Fitz” Fitzgerald. Briggs brøster sig af til enhver tid at være i stand til at afsløre forsikringssvindel og –svindlere pga. sin evne til at trænge ind i svindlerens hjerne. Men nu – takket være den jadegrønne skorpions hypnotiske kraft – trænger svindlerens hjerne i stedet ind i Briggs...

Merle Kramer works as a stenographer for a psychiatrist. She is casually dating Karl Benson, a private eye and former cop. Merle mentions in passing that one of her boss's patients is an author with recurring dreams of murdering his wife, and she includes the fact that the wife owns valuable jewels. When the wife is found murdered in a manner identical to that of her husband's dream, the husband is naturally the prime suspect. But as the investigation of the police and insurance investigator Joe Cooper proceeds, it turns out that several people in the case, including Merle, are not what they seem.

A model and a private eye help a New York insurance investigator on a deadly case in Acapulco.

Art curator George Steele experiences a train wreck...which never happened. Is he cracking up, or the victim of a plot?

An insurance agent's greedy girlfriend with a taste for mink leads him to a life of crime.

An Englishman with a grudge against an insurance company for a disallowed claim fakes his own death and escapes to Spain, but is soon pursued by an insurance investigator.

Two men and a woman form a triangle confined by a lighthouse.

An insurance investigator tumbles onto a series of similar deaths, by brain hemorrhage, of patients of a psychiatric clinic in France where therapy involves a device which can implant visual imagery in the minds of patients, ostensibly to help them relax.

Jun-oh, an insurance claims agent, faces off with a client who he suspects of committing murders with the intention of collecting insurance premiums.

Leslie is being chased by the gangsters, the police and the insurance investigators. He is on the run. Falsely accused of a murder, he embarks upon a life-and-death journey to save his family.

Police set up a dragnet to trap an outlaw's wife whom they believe to be his accomplice.

A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance money. He finds himself involved in a web of deception, double-crossing and murder.

A famous skier, his mistress and a ski instructor rob a bank in the Alps and hide the loot in a crevasse.

A botched diamond burglary and a dead publishing company executive set off a string of murders and betrayal.

A young married couple whose plans for their life together haven't turned out as expected decide to rob the bank where the husband works of $100,000, then hide the money in a safe place and return for it after they serve out their sentences. All goes according to plan until they get out of prison, when they find that they're being trailed by an insurance investigator and the husband's old cellmate, who has decided that he wants a cut of the money.

A U.S. businessman abroad is the patsy for the theft of a rajah's jewels.

A society doctor helps an insurance-company file clerk check deaths related to a big policy.