- A New York City career woman becomes a vigilante after being raped by two car thieves.
- Valarie is a happy, successful career woman, engaged to a charming and handsome man. She drives a great car and lives in a beautiful apartment. Then one night she hails the wrong taxi. She is brutally raped by the two car thieves who were taking a joyride. They leave her on the sidewalk to die after they're done with her. When she recovers, her fiancée abandons her, and with the police unable to help much in tracking down her attackers, Valarie buys a gun and takes to the gritty streets after dark, luring and killing street thugs who accosted her while searching for the two thugs to get her revenge. She becomes known in the press as the 'Dum-Dum Killer' because of the hollow-point bullets she pattens out and uses. At the same time, she begins dating a sympathetic police detective, named Marty, who takes an interest in her rape case, while tracking down the 'Dum-Dum Killer', and when he begins to suspect her, he is torn between upholding the law and protecting his newest love interest.—Anonymous
- In New York City, Valerie Wells (Denise Coward) and her fiance, Herbert (Robert Trumbull), go to a travel agency to choose a honeymoon destination. Sometime later after leaving her office for the evening to meet Herbert at a bar for dinner, Valerie hails a taxicab, unaware it has just been stolen by two thugs, the driver, Raphael (Joe Maruzzo), and his cohort, Willie (Jaimie Tirelli), who rides in the backseat. When Valerie gets into the cab, Willie assaults her. She fights back, but Willie chokes and rapes her, then leaves her unconscious body by the side of the road. As she recovers in the hospital, Valerie is visited by Detective Martin Lowery (Frank Runyeon) who questions her. Later, she is upset with her fiance, Herbert, who expects her to go on with her life as if nothing has happened.
While vacationing in New England with her friend, Peggy (Rebecca Hollen), Valerie secretly buys a gun, a semi-automatic pistol, and tells Peggy that she is "cooling things off" with Herbert. In time, she is visited by Lowery and is shown sketches of her two attackers whom she described, but Valerie feels that police are not trying hard enough to make an arrest. She plots her own revenge, hacking into the New York Police Department (NYPD) computer database from her own PC desktop computer at home to find leads.
Some time later, Valerie visits a bar frequented by known criminals and is followed into the alley by a creep named Cooch Elliot (Doug McCoy), who forces her into his apartment where he beats her and slashes her upper left arm with a knife. However, before he can rape her, Valerie shoots and kills him.
Another night or two later, Valerie visits another dangerous locale. Soon, a man named Reggie (Gary Majchrazak) approaches and holds her at knife-point with a straight razor, slashing her other arm. He takes her to his van where his friend (Tony Jaffe) awaits where they drive to a nearby parking garage. When Reggie attempts to rape her, Valerie plays along, before pulling out her gun and killing both men.
News reports of the killings note that specialized "dum dum" bullets, hollow-point bullets designed to inflict maximum damage, were used in the shootings.
Meanwhile, Det. Martin Lowery continues to investigate Valerie's rape case and along with his partner, they locate and begin to stake out the residence of Willie and Raphael.
Another night later, while riding in a taxicab, Valerie is attacked by the driver (Gerald Orange), who believes her to be a prostitute. When he threatens to drug and rape her, Valerie shoots him dead.
Back in her apartment, Valerie celebrates her third assault with a cocktail, and receives a dress from her former fiance, Herbert.
In time, Lowery invites Valerie to have a drink with him at a local bar, and tells her about his investigation. She is upset that he will not allow her to accompany him on a planned "bust" of her attackers, but Lowery promises the men will be arrested.
Another night later, Valerie visits another dive bar searching for the two men who raped her. She sees the perpetrators and follows them outside. Seeing them steal an automobile, Valerie searches for a pay telephone to call the police, and is invited into the apartment of a man (Arnie Mazer) who witnessed the crime. In the man's apartment, Valerie uses the man's phone to call the police precinct where Detective Lowery works, but she is told that he is not available. The man convinces Valerie to hang up the phone so he can remember the license plate number of the stolen vehicle and help her track the thugs. However, he grabs her, and she holds him at gunpoint. He pleads for his life, explaining that he was lonely having just returned from a tour of duty in the US Navy and believed that Valerie was flirting with him. He shows her his honorable discharge papers. Valerie, realizing that she almost killed an innocent man by baiting him, puts her gun away and leaves. Valerie then walks all around the city all night, crying and sulking... finally realizing to herself that she is no different then any of the other murderous thugs she has encountered and killed. She has more or less become one of them; a cold-blooded killer. At a bridge, Valerie takes out her gun and throws it into the river.
The next day, when Lowery visits Valerie at her home after she comes home from work to give her an update on her case, he finds the box of "dum dum" bullets in her nightstand and realizes that she is the vigilante. He comforts her and they make love for the first time. Valerie later returns Herbert's engagement ring.
Meanwhile, Lowery "stakes out" Valerie's rapists, learning that the thugs plan to rob a bail bonds deliveryman. Lowery sets up a "sting" operation, and asks Valerie to witness their arrests. Lowery's partner, Det. Boris Kosokowski (J. Kenneth Campbell), poses as the bond deliveryman, and after the thugs rob him, a chase ensues. During the pursuit, Boris is shot in his leg, and the rapist, Willie, murders his partner Raphael, and takes the stolen bonds for himself.
As Lowery exchanges gunfire with Willie, Valerie arrives and looks after the wounded Kosokowski. The chase continues onto a pier at the East River where the rapist grabs a little boy who had been fishing on the pier and holds him hostage (a homage to the climax of the 1971 film 'Dirty Harry'). When Lowery hesitates, Willie shoots him in the chest while the little boy breaks free and flees. Valerie appears and points a pump-action shotgun that she took from Kosokowski, at Willie. Before Willie can shoot Lowery again, Valerie blows Willie away, and he falls dead into the river. Lowery shows Valerie his bulletproof vest, and they embrace.
In the final scene, a news report states that it was Willie who was the "DumDum killer" when the box of dum-dum bullets (clearly planted on his dead body by either Lowery or Valerie) is found. Lowery meets with Valerie outside the police station where he tells her that the case has been closed and that Valerie's involvement will remain a secret. They drive away together.
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