A young woman is found murdered in the liquor store she was working in as a clerk. Though it at first looks like a burglary, the detectives soon discount that theory and look into the girl's acquaintances, particularly as she was engaged in a custody battle with her ex-husband, and was romantically involved with her employer and hoping to marry him when he divorced his wife.
In response to an incident of vandalism at a store, Kling tries to persuade baseball player Larry Brooks to start a ball club for young kids in the neighborhood he grew up in. Larry finally agrees, after learning that his parolee older brother has become involved in a numbers racket. Unfortunately, Larry's attempts to keep his brother out of further trouble just wind up digging a deeper hole for both of them.
Veteran beat cop Otto Forman is plagued with guilt after his partner is shot and killed during a robbery. The detectives also have questions about Forman, particularly after they learn that the gun used in the robbery and murder was stolen from him five years ago, and that the likely killer is his estranged son.
After returning drunk to his bachelor party the night before his wedding, Cleve Tompson remembers finding his fiancee's body in her apartment. He calls police and tells them that he had to have killed her. But after checking out the evidence in her room, the detectives don't believe he could have done it. They find that the girl had recently paid large amounts of money to several other men. Meanwhile, Tompson, still believing he had to have done it, calls the newspaper and they print his confession to them on the front page.
Right after returning from her honeymoon, a policeman's wife is shot in the back and seriously wounded by a sniper. The only apparent witness is a young boy who strangely claims to have seen a suspicious person but not to have heard the shot, even though he was right across the street. The detectives focus their investigation on several men who threatened the policeman because they blamed him for their imprisonment.
The detectives investigate a recent series of burglaries. The crimes have identical MOs to those of several known burglars. However, when these suspects are checked out, it turns out one was dead when the crimes occurred, one was in prison, and another has an alibi that checks out completely. It appears that a copycat is at work, and the detectives come to suspect that a respected retired cop may be the one they're looking for.
Detective Bert Kling is deeply troubled after he is forced to shoot and kill an 18-year-old who was firing at him after attempting to rob a theater box office. Everyone who knew the youth describes him as a good kid. Now Kling and the other detectives try to discover the identity of the boy's accomplice who escaped.
Havilland's usually cold and cynical heart is warmed by a boy who stole a wreath for his mother's grave, so he helps out the youth by buying him a wreath. The boy, Ramon, wants to somehow repay the detective by helping him out. What's unknown to the police is that Ramon's father, along with a janitor at the precinct, is part of a group planning to assassinate the prime minister of a Latin nation whom the precinct officers have been asked to help protect. When the group draws straws, Ramon's father is the one picked to do the killing.
A Hungarian immigrant locksmith realizes that two thugs used the key he made for them to enter their victim's home and beat him. He goes to the police to tell them, but his pregnant wife, fearful for his safety, begs him not to identify the men in a lineup. When another two men are killed the locksmith realizes he has to cooperate with the police after all, but things are not so simple as the killers are now free and the detectives don't know their whereabouts.