How to Make a Killing

On death row for murder, Becket Redfellow converses with a priest on why he ended up there to begin with. As a child, Becket is raised by his single mother, Mary, who was exiled from the wealthy Redfellow family for choosing to keep her teenage pregnancy. He befriends the more affluent Julia Steinway. Prior to her death, Mary stresses to a young Becket that he should fight for the life he "deserves" to have.

After encountering a married Julia and getting demoted from his job as a suit salesman, an adult Becket decides to murder the remaining Redfellows in order to claim his inheritance to the family fortune. Becket first kills his cousin Taylor and meets Taylor's father Warren at the funeral, who offers him Taylor's old job at a financial investment firm. While planning the murder of his other cousin Noah, Becket befriends Noah's girlfriend Ruth. After killing Noah, two FBI agents approach Becket, discussing the two suspicious deaths, though they do not accuse Becket of murder. Becket pretends to not know whether he is eligible for the inheritance. Julia appears in Becket's office, claiming her husband Lyle is broke and asks for a loan, which he denies. Becket and Ruth begin dating and move in together. Despite being rapidly promoted in his job and content with his relationship with Ruth, Becket kills three more Redfellows: Steven, Cassandra, and MacArthur. As he contemplates to kill his uncle, he realizes that he has grown to love and respect him so he decides to quit and engage to Ruth instead. Warren has a heart attack and dies but not before telling him to live a happy life, leaving only one more living Redfellow: Becket's grandfather Whitelaw.

As Whitelaw invites Becket to dinner at his mansion on the night of Becket and Ruth's engagement party, Julia reveals to Becket that she has evidence of his murders, which she will reveal unless he gives her money immediately (delivered to her husband Lyle). Becket complies, going to Lyle's office to hand-deliver a check to him. Becket forgoes his engagement party to go to the mansion, where he meets Whitelaw. Whitelaw reveals that he knows how Beckett uses dirty means to gain his station much like he himself did in the past. He then gives Beckett, an heirloom trench gun used by his late grandfather back in WW1 and demands Beckett to kill him in order to inherit the Redfellow fortune based on the Redfellow's cutthroat principle. When Becket refuses, he tries to kills him but Beckett manages to kill Whitelaw in self-defense, making him the sole inheritor to the fortune. At a celebratory party at the mansion, Becket is approached again by the FBI agents, who arrest him for the murder of Lyle, who was found stabbed to death in his office using a letter opener that Becket touched when he delivered the money, leaving fingerprint evidence.

24 hours before he is set to be executed, Julia visits Becket in jail. During the meeting, she notes that there was a suicide note written by Lyle that was withheld from the trial. Becket pressures Julia to release the note, which she agrees to only if Becket signs over the entire Redfellow fortune to her. Becket reluctantly agrees. Julia then releases the note as promised. With Becket's innocence proven, he is set free. Ruth waits for him outside the prison, only to return his mother's locket to him and leaves afterwards without saying a word to Becket. Becket sees Julia waiting for him with the Redfellow family driver, and the two travel to the Redfellow family mansion together.