Rifle Edwards Jackie Cooper is a young man whose life is crushed when his father, a small-town sheriff, is slain by a ruthless city gangster. He becomes a homeless vagabond, drifting from town to town, until he lands in a large metropolis and, broke and hungry, seeks food and shelter at the Newsboys' Home.
There, the kids force him to fight an amateur bout with the champ, Danny Shay Elisha Cook Jr., before he can eat. When Rifle knocks Danny out, the country boy is accepted into the gang of newsies. He goes to work selling the Globe, which is published by Howard Price Dutton Samuel S. Hinds, the founder and benefactor of the home. When Dutton dies, his daughter Gwen Dutton Wendy Barrie becomes the new publisher.
Globe reporter Perry Warner Edmund Lowe is in love with Gwen, but they quarrel over her ideas about turning the Globe into a highbrow paper. Perry warns that she will ruin the paper, but she is stubborn and refuses to listen. Meanwhile, Tom Davenport Irving Pichel, a crooked politician, buys the opposition Star to swing the election, and tries to bribe Perry to work for him. After Perry refuses, Davenport starts a ruthless circulation war, and Globe sales begin to fall. Gwen still refuses to heed Perry's advice and abandon her editorial policies, and in frustration, Perry quits and leaves on a trip.
When the Globe can no longer support the Newsboys' Home, Danny and some of the boys go to work for Bartsch Horace McMahon on the Star, leaving only Rifle Edwards and Sailor behind at the Globe. Perry returns to find the Globe in dire straits and Gwen tearfully refutes her policies. Assuming editorship of the paper, Perry sets out to whip the Star at its own game.
Growing bolder, Davenport hires mobster Francis Barber Edward Norris to escalate the circulation war, and Globe trucks are wrecked, newsstands smashed and burned. The war comes to a climax when a street fight erupts during which boys from the two rival papers meet in open combat, and police squads are required to quell the riot. Angered because one of his pals has been shot by Barber's men, Danny goes to Barber to quit his job while Rifle follows the gangsters to Barber, whom he recognizes as his father's killer. Barber and his men are preparing to take Rifle for a ride when Danny and the newsboys stage a sensational rescue in which they take Barber prisoner and turn him over to the police. With the newspaper war brought to a close, the Globe regains its popularity and Gwen and Perry are married.
