In 1935, the numbers racket (selling of illegal lottery tickets) is big business throughout New York City, much of it controlled by mobsters, who are feared by the populace. Meanwhile, crusading, likeable young newspaper reporter Tim Higgins has just published an exposé of graft in the awarding of major city contracts, only to have his article challenged by the accused, who threatens to sue for libel. He is ordered by his editor to print an apology, Higgins is approached by Ann Devlin, the daughter of a kindly old shopkeeper near the waterfront. She pleads for Higgins to help her father, who was just visited and ordered by a mob representative to aggressively increase his sales of lottery numbers to gullible store patrons. Higgins over many days interviews Ann, her father, and other witnesses, sometimes over dinner dates. He jokes to his wife that he is dating a blonde. He gets help from Dick Barton, the newspaper's lawyer. At one point, they receive a package containing a dynamite bomb. Mr. Devlin eventually sells his store to a man he does not realize is a mobster, who throws in a free sea voyage to Cuba. Suddenly, radio news reports that Devlin's ship is aflame and sinking off North Carolina. Higgins and Bartpm hastily board an open-cockpit(!) airplane to fly and view the disaster, taking photographs of the burning ship. Devlin is among the passengers rescued, and he later tells his daughter that the cause of the fire can be laid at the feet of the mob. Due to having this incriminating knowledge, Devlin is killed by the mob. In the end, however, the murderer is tricked into a confession, not only of his role but of the identities of the men at the top.
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