Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is a New York press agent caught up in a complex relationship with the powerful newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). Falco needs to get his showbiz clients placed in the newspapers, and hangs around Hunsecker hoping to garner a mention in his column. Hunsecker is obsessively protective towards his sister Susan (Susan Harrison), and his only apparent desire is to see an end to her budding romance with jazz musician Steve Dallas (Martin Milner). Thus with Falco growing increasingly desperate, Hunsecker lets him know that the one way he can secure access to the column is to break up Susan and Steve, thereby setting in motion a chain of events which will tear them all apart.