Plot

A naive young girl goes to a model agency, where she is molested, shot up with drugs and forced to become a prostitute.

After Sally Downs, a young woman from a small town, arrives in Hollywood, California to visit a friend, she discovers that her host has been called away due to an illness in her family. Forced to fend for herself, Sally finds a modest apartment and a job as a waitress. When one of her regular customers, Nick Moran, tells Sally that he runs a model agency and that she could easily earn $20,000 a year modeling, she accepts his offer to represent her.

As her first assignment, Moran sends Sally to a private house to take part in a magazine layout. She is welcomed by another woman, shown into a room and told that the photographer will be there momentarily. Instead, Moran enters and begins to assault her. When Sally fights back, scratching Moran's face, he knocks her out and injects her with a drug.

Later, Blanche, the madam of a brothel in which Sally is being held, meets with the man who runs the operation, tells him that Sally is very popular with her customers and that Moran is controlling her with injections. When some of the other prostitutes are invited to a playboy's pool party, Blanche tells the host's friend Tommy that she has a special girl for him. When Tommy visits the house, he confesses to Sally that it is his first time in a brothel and that he is not sure how to proceed, but Sally initiates him. Later, the owner of the racket discovers that Blanche, who is an alcoholic, has resumed drinking and is endangering the business.

After Tommy has made several visits to Sally's room, the owner orders Blanche to offer Tommy other girls, as he is concerned that Tommy and Sally are becoming too interested in each other. Because Tommy is in love with Sally, he persuades her to try to leave the brothel, but Moran stops them, draws a gun, then tells Tommy to leave and Sally to return to her room.

Some time later, Tommy writes to Sally that he intends to free her, but Blanche intercepts the letter, and he is warned again by Moran to stay away. Tommy then decides to go to the police and tells his tale to Lieutenant Durgin, unaware that Durgin is the owner of the brothel. When Tommy drives to the house, Moran follows him, and when Tommy's car breaks down next to a vacant lot, they become involved in a fistfight. Tommy punches Moran and runs off, but Moran chases him, draws his gun and shoots Tommy, killing him.

Later, at the house, Blanche shows Moran a newspaper headline stating that Tommy was the son of a prominent civic leader. Durgin arrives at the house and reminds Moran that he was only to rough up Tommy, not kill him, and warns Moran that he can no longer protect him. Sally overhears their conversation and realizes that Tommy is dead. She then takes scissors from her room and, after Moran shoots Durgin, stabs Moran in the back, killing him.