The story refers to a group of people struggling to improve their lives, but their strenuous efforts encounter insurmountable obstacles and often end in tragedy, as luck smiles on them occasionally, but without any real reward.
Newspaper reporter Nat Hearn returns home after serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II. When one of the paper's owners dies, the man's partner and son offers Nat a position as editor in return for his financial backing.
The Jewel Land Company of Elko, Texas is selling Government land to settlers. Before any of the settlers can claim their land, they are being killed by McCabe's gang.
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died.
Ruthless Italian-American banker Gino Monetti is engaged in a number of criminal activities. Three of his four grown sons refuse to help their father stay out of prison after he's arrested for his questionable business practices.