Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
No one is explicitly terminally ill, but Ruthie is sick and bedridden, and her husband Mike wants to partake in the heist so he can pay for her medical treatment.