As is his custom, Christopher Emanuel 'Manny' Balestrero, a string bass player at New York City's Stork Club, returns home to Jackson Heights after the club closes just before dawn. His wife Rose is still awake, suffering from a toothache, and confides her anxiety about their inability to pay for having her tooth extracted. The couple, who are rearing two young boys, live frugally and have weathered their share of financial distresses. Remembering Rose's insurance policy, Manny suggests that they can borrow against it to pay for the procedure and plans to look into it when the office opens.
Later, after promising to return at 5:30 to give music lessons to his sons, Manny visits his ailing father and then goes to the insurance company to see about the loan. Although he does not notice, the clerks become nervous in his presence and decide among themselves that he looks like the man who robbed them a month ago. The police, alerted by the insurance clerks, wait outside Manny's home and pick him up on his doorstep at 5:30. Without allowing him first to speak to his wife and without telling him why he is being taken into custody, they drive him to the station.
