Mr. Stepp has just been fired from Baldwin, King & Co., and he goes to see Baldwin one more time to plead for his job. When Baldwin refuses to discuss it, Stepp takes a gun from his desk drawer, returns to Baldwin's office, and shoots him to death. After wandering the streets aimlessly, Stepp decides to go back to his lodgings to wait to be arrested. Instead, he is awakened by a telephone call from Baldwin's secretary, asking why he is not at work. When Stepp arrives at the office, Baldwin is alive and well, and everyone acts as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The baffled Stepp even gets his job back

Two retired insurance salesmen have been visiting the scenes of accidents and crimes, feeling that they have a responsibility to learn why such things happen. One of them has found an aggressive, hostile woman whom he considers to be a prime candidate for a personal disaster. On a blisteringly hot day, the two follow her as she does some shopping, and watch as she antagonizes several persons. After some discussion, they decide to take a chance on helping her, and they go up to her apartment to talk to her.

Mrs. Crabtree's health is poor, and Mr. Crabtree is out of work, having been let go from his job because his personnel manager thought he had become too old for the work. He receives a call from an employer to whom he had written, and the employer sends his secretary to discuss the job with Crabtree. He begins working in a private office, reviewing financial information and writing reports, but he is baffled by his employer's secretive nature. Then one day he arrives at the office to find his employer waiting for him, with a most unexpected assignment.

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.