Jde o vůbec první film, vypořádávající se s následky na těch, kteří přežili koncentrační tábory nacistického Německa. Sol Nazerman, prodavač v zastavárně, a přeživší z koncentračního tábora se vyrovnává s hrozným vnitřním konfliktem. Zcela pohlcen newyorkským ghettem, trpí Sol ve vracejících se vzpomínkách. Ve vzpomínkách srovnává chování lidí v koncentráku s chováním sousedů v ghettu. Ačkoliv jsou vzpomínky v některých bodech nepřesné, jejich pointa je zachycena výtečně. Vše vyúsťuje v niterný konflikt - podlehnout stejným bezprávím, jaké již jednou se svou rodinou přetrpěl, nebo vzepřít se bezpráví.
Asistent zastavárny se vypořádává se svým nevrlým šéfem, otravným spolupracovníkem a několika výstředními zákazníky a flirtuje se zastavárníkovou dcerou, dokud do zastavárny nepřijde proradný podvodník se špatnými úmysly.
The story of a small-town man who comes to make it big in the city, where he is almost instantly relieved of all his possessions. Homeless and penniless, he is taken in by a woman who looks after him.
Adventures of a cocky con man and his beautiful accomplice.
Johnnie learns crime from petty thug Frank Wilson. When Wilson kills a pawnbroker with a gun stolen from Johnnie's sister Madge's fiance Fred Burke, Fred goes to Sing Sing's death house. Wilson uses all the pressure can to keep Johnnie silent, even after he and Johnnie themselves wind up in the big house.
Příběh se otevírá sebevraždou mladé ženy. U jejího těla pak muž vypráví příběh jejich seznámení, svatby a společného života. Pokouší se tak pochopit, co ji vedlo k zoufalému činu.
Clemente, a moneylender of few words, is a new hope for Sofía, his single neighbor, devoted to the October worship of Our Lord of the Miracles. They're brought together over a new-born baby, fruit of Clemente's relationship with a prostitute who's nowhere to be found. While Clemente is looking for the girl's mother, Sofía cares for the baby and looks after the moneylender's house. With the arrival of these beings in his life, Clemente has the opportunity to reconsider his emotional relations with people
A teenaged shoeshine boy urgently tries to raise the remaining amount of money he needs to purchase a secondhand bugle before 6p.m.
A young man is charged with statutory rape.
A one-armed street peddler notices that a well-to-do man has dropped his ring. He returns it to him. The wealthy man is very grateful and, to show his appreciation, takes the peddler to a 'Limb Store', where he buys him a new arm. The recipient soon discovers that this new arm has a will of its own - causing him considerable embarrassment.
Dusty, a street smart but desperately unhappy Times Square sex worker uses her body to survive; seducing, conning, and ripping off her johns.
The chamberlain Carl Johan Stjärna is a poor aristocrat who has to resort to borrowing money from his manservant Frans to afford champagne and restaurant visits. Frans has told his fiance Irene that he is an aristocrat which leads to some complications, not least because Irene has told Frans she is a rich land owner's daughter, although she is in a housemaid.
18-year-old Rosie Kaplan O'Grady was found as an abandoned baby by O'Grady, an Irish policeman, and Kaplan, a Jewish pawnbroker, and raised by them as their own. She is being courted by two men; prizefighter Terry Callahan and a rich socialite, Tommy Sinclair and has to choose between them.