When two fabulously wealthy kids lose their fortunes, they hatch a plot to steal the money they feel the world has cheated them out of. Unable to face working for a living and unwilling to adapt to life after the great stock market crash, spoiled Ruth and her partner-in-crime, boyfriend Jimmy, expect luxury as a birthright and not a privilege, their warped values the product of their sheltered upper-crust upbringing. The criminal lovers scheme to steal a fortune from a bank and hide the loot in an antique music box. They plan to confess to the crime, serve their time, and finally recover the hidden cash as "earned" wealth.
Featuring Lionel Atwill as the insurance adjuster seeking to find out where Jimmy and Helen hid the money, The Wrong Road is an eccentric crime drama dressed as a cautionary morality tale. Director James Cruze's film is peppered with scene-stealing supporting players and a poetic script that seeks to search existentially into the motives behind human greed and the rationalization of fraud.