肥胖的护士长玛莎(Shirley Stoler 饰)全部的生活不过是沉闷的工作加上照顾依赖感强烈但又时常抱怨的母亲,对所谓的爱情,她已不抱太大希望,直到她通过交友中心与一位纽约的小进口商雷(Tony Lo Bianco 饰)书信往来,两人确定了爱情关系,不久雷专程拜访,向玛莎借了一笔钱后匆匆折返。玛莎对雷念念不忘,找上门去之后才发现对方实际是谋财的感情骗子,雷让接受了自己骗子身份的玛莎以亲妹的名义出现,自此二人开始使用假名四处行骗,玛莎严加防范雷和那些受骗女人发生关系,并且对待她们的手段愈发凶狠,最终发展到了杀人的地步…… 本片根据四十年代名噪一时的真实案件改编,此案被多次搬上银幕。编剧Leonard Kastle写好剧本之后在导演人选迟迟不能落实的情况下自执导筒,这也是他唯一的导演作品。In the early 1950s, Martha Beck, who lives with her slightly senile mother, is the head nurse in a Mobile, Alabama hospital. She is bitter about her life, she not having male companionship in large part because she is overweight, while her bitterness in turn does not endear her to people. She is initially angry with her best friend, Bunny, for signing her up to a lonely hearts club, but eventually decides to give it a try. Through it, she meets Ray Fernandez, a suave Spanish immigrant living in New York, he who contacted Martha as the first through the club. After Ray's trip to Mobile to meet Martha, they fall in love. Upon a subsequent visit Martha makes to Ray in New York - which leads to her being fired in part for her time off work - he decides to be up front with her: that she is not only not his "first" but that he is really a con man who, primarily through the club, seduces then bilks lonely women of their money. Pretending to be his sister to prospective targets, Martha decides to join Ray on his cons as they travel the country together. Their differences in style causes problems, Martha who is more direct, more impatient and more violent, she who is the first to consider killing to get what they want. But what has the potential to be the primary cause of their downfall is Martha's jealousy over Ray even pretending to seduce other women, let alone any time he may have sex with them.