Police officer Joe Bash has endured the night tour for more than nine months, in the 33rd Precinct of the N.Y.P.D., and he complains of a vitamin deficiency for lack of sunlight. With tonight's foot patrol he is assigned a new partner, eager rookie Willie Smith, whom he soon must extricate from a tenement building filled with angry New Yorkers.

Joe is faced with a test of conscience when an old woman dies alone in her dirty, packrat apartment, and he is the one who discovers her fortune, a paper bag filled with bills totaling 60,000 dollars.

Joe refuses a Sunday dinner invitation from Willie, his partner. Then the officers encounter a problem with Abe Feinbaum, who orders a meal at a midnight eatery in NYC but cannot pay for it, and cannot remember where he lives.

Officer Smith recognizes Joe's date as a hooker. Also, the two policemen are caught in a sting by the precinct's Integrity Control Officer.