We follow the daily activities of two London bobbies, veteran George Dixon and rookie Andy Mitchell. Meanwhile, young hoods Tom and Spud plan a series of robberies with Tom's girl Diana, a discontented beauty, as inside worker. But in their second crime, one of our heroes is shot, setting off a citywide manhunt. The killer is clever, but will he outsmart himself?

During post-war England, a young petty crook, Jackie Knowles, is on probation for committing petty crimes. Jackie wants to marry his girlfriend Kitty but they don't have enough money to live on. Jackie foolishly accepts to be the getaway driver for a robbery job. The robbery goes wrong and Jackie is arrested. Because of his previous probation breach, the judge sentences him to three years in a Borstal institution. In the UK, the Borstal institutions are trying to rehabilitate rather than punish young offenders. Jackie Knowles arrives at a Borstal institution run by a sympathetic governor. Initially, Jackie intends to keep his nose clean, do his time and get out. Unfortunatelly, he falls in with a crowd planning to escape. The wrong crowd is run by scheming Welsh boy Alfie Rawlins who senses Jackie's naiveté and innocence. Alfie manipulates Jackie into wanting to join his group by playing on Jackie's anxiety about his girlfriend, Kitty. Alfie lies that Kitty already has forgotten about...

Thirteen years after WWII a concentration camp survivor (Rampling) and her tormentor, currently the night porter at a Vienna hotel, meet again and fall back into their sado-masochistic relationship.