In a Depression-era metropolis, a corrupt political machine centered on Mayor Billy Manning [Berton Churchill] works to polish his image as he seeks re-election. When a local mobster is shot in his hotel room by a speakeasy owner/racketeer named Jig Skelli [Edward Arnold], the crime is witnessed by bellhop Eddie Martin [Eric Linden], who is quickly taken into custody by the police. The city’s powerful A.D.A. John Wade [Louis Calhern], allied with Manning’s circle, pressures Eddie to name Jig as the killer, going so far as to block any warning from Eddie’s wife, Peggy [Sidney Fox], who fears for their safety. With the media already naming Eddie as the prime witness, the stage is set for a high-stakes confrontation between truth and a carefully managed political narrative.
Jig Skelli’s brother Joe Skelli [Matt Mchugh] steps in, presenting courtiers with documents from the dead man that lay bare the corrupt dealings of Manning’s cronies and their ties to the underworld. To protect their interests, they maneuver to derail the case and push for the charges to be dropped, aiming to free Jig. Eddie and Peggy are promised a safe move to New York to escape retaliation, a glimmer of hope in a city where power can erase inconvenient truths.
As Jig’s associates celebrate his (temporary) freedom, they unleash a barrage of gunfire that devastates a neighborhood and kills an innocent child. Faced with the difficulty of reindicting Jig without risking exposure of deeper corruption, Manning’s circle shifts the theory to frame Eddie as the killer. Eddie is arrested again, and the interrogation grows violently coercive in an attempt to secure a confession. A doctor at the scene warns that Eddie could die if he isn’t treated, and A.D.A. Wade reluctantly allows him to be rushed to a hospital for care.
In the hospital, a sympathetic doctor brings in a progressive lawyer who helps gather evidence to counter the city’s case. The tension rises as the conspirators move to a drastic measure: a manufactured hanging intended to eliminate Eddie. But Police Commissioner Garvey [Frank Sheridan], who has quit in protest of the frame-up, races to the detention facility and saves Eddie from execution.
Public exposure follows as the press uncovers the breadth of Manning’s corruption and the collusion of his lieutenants. Yet while the party chairman and A.D.A. Hyde manage to shield themselves from the formal records, Hyde’s reckless affair with Jig Skelli’s girlfriend Marge Winters [Mayo Methot] seals his fate when he is killed by the Skellis. In the aftermath, the party chair faces a stark, sobering question about the city’s leadership: who will rise to uphold integrity when entrenched power clings to its own gains?
