After Ned Sherwood, a blackjack dealer
in a Havana casino, is passed some counterfeit peso bills, he
challenges the woman who presented them, as under the casino’s
rules, a dealer is responsible for any phony currency he unwittingly
accepts. The woman denies knowing that the bills were
counterfeit, refuses to change them for others and leaves.
That night, on his way home, two thugs
attack Ned but run off when the police are summoned. Guillermo
Mastegui, Chief of the Secret Section of the Cuban National Police,
interrogates Ned about the attack and, because he still has some of
the counterfeit bills, accuses him of being involved in a plan to
flood Cuba with worthless currency. Mastegui refrains from
arresting Ned, however, as he and a U.S. Treasury agent plan to have
him followed in the hope that he will lead them to the head
counterfeiter.
Now jobless and forbidden to leave Cuba,
Ned takes measures to clear his name. Ned meets with a young
woman, Anita Ferrer, who believes that he has the bills, as well as
the engraving plates they were made from, and offers to buy them.
After a totally bewildered Ned denies any knowledge of the bills and
plates, Anita takes him to meet her father, who is president of the
Bank of Cuba. Señor Ferrer explains to Ned that Mastegui
suspects that three million counterfeit pesos, manufactured in
Chicago, are about to be laundered through the bank. Because
this act would destroy confidence in the bank and in the government,
Ferrer is anxious to discover who is behind the plot. Ned
tells Ferrer that he knows nothing about the matter and is about to
leave when Ferrer’s other daughter, Josefina, returns home and Ned
recognizes her as the woman who passed him the notes in the casino,
but says nothing.
When “Fina” agrees to a meeting with
Ned, she again denies any involvement in the counterfeiting, but
offers to be seen with him in the hope of having the ringleaders
show their hand. After visiting several nightclubs, Fina
admits that she took the counterfeit money from the pocket of Carlos
Rubi, her sister’s boyfriend. Upon leaving a club, Ned and
Fina are kidnapped by Miguel Collada, a trusted banking aide of her
father, and his henchman Chuchu. Collada reveals that he is
behind the scheme to substitute the counterfeit bills, which have
now been chemically aged, for bundles of old, withdrawn bills that
are to be burned under his supervision. He will then keep the
genuine, old currency, but fears that his associate, Rubi, may have
stolen the plates, which could connect him to the swindle. To
help Ned, with whom she is falling in love, Fina suggests to Collada
that Rubi may have hidden the plates in El Morro Castle where Rubi,
she and Anita used to play as children.
Meanwhile, Anita meets with Rubi to try
to extricate themselves from Collada’s scheme in which they became
involved in order to pay off substantial debts. After Collada
and Fina depart for El Morro, leaving Chuchu to guard Ned, Rubi
comes to the house intending to kill Collada, but is shot and killed
by Chuchu. Ned escapes, alerts Mastegui, then goes with Anita
to El Morro. When they catch up with Collada and Fina, Collada
uses Fina as a shield during a gunfight. Anita tries to
bargain with him, but is killed by Collada. Ned jumps on
Collada and they fight on the castle’s parapet until Collada falls,
with the plates, into the sea and is eaten by sharks. To
protect Ferrer from the knowledge of Anita’s wrongdoing, Mastegui
declares that she has died a hero and considers the case closed.
Ned and Fina walk off together.
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