Joan Crawford delivers an Academy Award-winning performance as a woman clawing her way to success to provide her daughters with everything she lacks, a woman named Mildred Pierce. Dying of gunshot wounds, Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) croaks the name "Mildred." The police believe he has named his murderer ... and Pierce confesses to the crime. Now, as her story unfolds, the police learn of a woman who divorces her philandering husband, takes a job as a waitress and does anything to achieve success--only to be betrayed by the daughter she adores.