After fighter Jim O’Hara is killed during a bout against a much heavier opponent, Mark Miller, a former boxer who left the profession to become a sportswriter, learns that a gambling ring led by Dano Rizzo forced Jim into the unfair fight. Mark’s editor, Al Bragg, encourages him to investigate Jim’s death further and publish his findings. Jim's manager, Doc Allen, is murdered before he can tell Mark that Jim was secretly in love with Rizzo’s girl friend, Doris Burton, who was using him for his money. Rizzo and his thugs, Dutch Gordon and Augie Grotz, next blackmail Doris’ brother Bill, a college basketball star, into throwing the college games by threatening to ruin Doris’ reputation. Mark, meanwhile, continues his romance with fashion editor Kerry Barker, and writes columns about the disreputable Rizzo. His columns earn him death threats from Rizzo and pressure from the newspaper’s nervous publisher. When Bill's duplicity is discovered and he is expelled from school, Doris commits suicide after having sent a written confession to Mark. Although Rizzo tries to silence Mark and Bill by murdering them, his attempts fail and he and his cohorts are arrested after a brawl in the newspaper’s offices.