Outside the Los Angeles Mirror building, former reporter Dick Meadows meets news photographer Stubby. Dick left the paper three years earlier when a play he had written was optioned and now wants his old job back. Although Stubby informs him that the paper recently dismissed two reporters, Dick is able to persuade G. B. Barton, the paper's owner, to rehire him. While they chat, G. B.'s son Clyde arrives with his girl friend, Helen Carter, of whom G. B. does not approve. The next day, Dick and Stubby look into a story about a farmer named Bradley, who is about to be run off his farm. Dick encourages Bradley to hold out against the authorities while he tries to generate public support. At the Bradley farm, Dick meets Brooke Peters, who tells him that she is a local teacher. Dick then invites her to bring some of her students to the paper. Back at the paper, Dick is surprised to learn that his former mentor, Tippy Miller, is now working there. G. B. explains that Tippy began to drink after his wife died, and his work is no longer up to standard. Later, Brooke, now more stylishly dressed than she was in the country, hires some street urchins to pretend to be her students and disrupt Dick's office. As she is leaving, Stubby recognizes her as a magazine writer and persuades her to accompany him to the office to observe the results of her joke. To Brooke's disappointment, things are quiet in the office as Dick enthralls the boys with stories of his reporting triumphs. Dick is delighted to see Brooke again, however, and they have a drink together. Later, in hopes of ending his son's relationship with Helen, G. B. asks Dick to look into her background. After Dick befriends Helen's French maid, Yvette, he breaks a date with Brooke, prompting a quarrel. Using his friendship with Yvette to gain access to Helen's apartment, Dick helps Stubby rig a camera to go off automatically when someone sits on the couch. Meanwhile, Dick learns that his stories have inspired the governor to intervene on Bradley's behalf. Some time later, Stubby retrieves the exposed film from the hidden camera, which contains pictures of Helen and Ransome, the paper's drama critic, but before Dick can show them to G. B., Clyde announces his engagement to Helen, and Dick decides to remain silent. When he learns that Tippy is going to be fired, Dick files a story under his name. The success of the story helps restore Tippy's confidence. When Brooke learns what Dick has done, she decides to make up with him. That night, however, Brooke sees Dick with Yvette in a nightclub, where he has taken her prior to retrieving the hidden camera, and gives him a showy kiss. Yvette jealously storms away, and Brooke follows her. By the time Brooke arrives at Helen's apartment, Yvette has found Helen's body. Brooke calls the police, who arrive shortly after Dick and Stubby. Later, Ransome confesses that he killed Helen, with whom he had been having an affair, when he struck her, but the autopsy reveals that she was poisoned. Although this seems to clear Ransome, Dick is convinced that he is guilty. He and Stubby retrieve the hidden camera, which reveals that Ransome poisoned Helen before he struck her. Brooke and Dick are reconciled, and Yvette, who is really from Brooklyn, heads off with fellow Brooklynite Stubby for a drink.