***SPOILER*** Freelance photographer Mike Kovac, Charles Bronson, has the tables turned on him when he tries to dig up, or photograph, evidence against New Jersey hood Bradman's, Dennis Patrick, illegal gambling operation in the Graden State.
After taking a number of candid photos of the action going on in Bradman's illegal casino, that including Bradman himself, Kovac after being exposed by Bradman and his hoods is not only allowed to leave the premises but keep the incriminating photos as well! It's later after Kovac did a photo shoot of candidate for Governor John Payson, Logan Fields, and his family that on a path train traveling back to New York City his photo negatives are stolen. The negatives were then used to both frame him and the person he's working for who's running for the Governor's job in New Jersey John Payson. It's Payson who wants to use those photos to put Bradman out of business and behind bars after he's elected governor of the state but they end up boomeranging into the wrong hands; Bradman himself!
Bradman has ex-convict and photo expert Clyde Basser, Addison Richards, both steal and fake or doctor the photos of Payson and Bradman making them look as if they knew each other by putting both men, who never met, in the same frame! This has Kovac scrambling to Basser's place in the East Village in Manhattan to get his hands on the original negatives that he stole from off him back in Jersey!
***SPOILERS*** As things turned out Bradman got to Basser first fearing that he'll crack under the strain of being sent back to prison if his scheme is exposed to the NYPD. It was Bradman who tuned the tables on himself by having a heated augment with Besser causing him to fall to his death off his apartment balcony. Kovac showing up at Besser's place after he was killed uses this opportunity to doctor a photo of the dead Basser and that of live Bradman,that he took at his casino, to show Basser's daughter Miss. Hollis, Phylis Avery, who in fact works in Bradman's casino that her boss killed her father! Angry and outraged Miss Hollis spills the beans on Bradman and his scheme,together with her deceased father, to frame Payson and sink his bid to be elected Governor. As for Kovac he gets one or maybe two good departing shot of the now on his way to the clink Bradman by photographing him as he's about to be handcuffed and arrested by the Jersey City police.