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Indian auteur Adoor Gopalakrishnan tells four interconnected stories in this period drama. As World War II rages in Europe, the British colony of Travancore in South India is suffering from a shortage of petroleum products, clothing and staple foods as supply lines are closed by the conflict. With most legitimate means to obtain daily necessities shut down, many have turned to criminal enterprise to get what they need. Kunjunni (Master Amal Jose) is a schoolboy whose father Neelantan (M.R.Gopakumar) is a habitual thief. Kunjunni finds he's shunned by many in the community because of his father's career in crime, and he and his mother try to persuade Neelantan to go straight, even though stealing is the best way he knows to support the family. Elsewhere, a new police inspector (Vijayaraghavan) is given an unsolved robbery as his first assignment by the head constable, Kuttan Pillai (Jagannathan). Pillai has often been accused of corruption, and rumor has it that he's an accessory to the robbery the new inspector is supposed to investigate, leading him to believe he's meant to find a fall guy rather than the party truly responsible. At a rooming house in town, Krishnankutty (Sudheesh) is a college student who has fallen for a girl working at the house as a maid. When it becomes clear that the girl is pregnant, Krishnankutty turns to an older friend (Jagadeesh) who advises him that for the sake of his reputation, the girl must have an abortion. But Krishnankutty is wary of this notion, especially when he meets the unlicensed doctor who will perform the illegal procedure. And finally, Rama Kurup (Ravi Vallthol) has married a beautiful woman many years his junior, Pankiyamma (Praveena), who has turned the heads of many men in the village. When Kurup discovers Pankiyamma is having an affair with a younger man (Manoj K. Jayan), he violently attacks her lover and flees the scene of the crime. Kurup is charged with attempted murder and in time returns home on bond, but as the case comes before a judge, Pankiyamma stubbornly refuses to side with either her husband or her lover. A Climate For Crime was an official selection at the 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival.