Leopold Dilg Cary Grant is a mill worker and political activist who finds himself accused of arson and murder after a devastating blaze at a woolen mill that claims the life of foreman Clyde Bracken Tom Tyler. The courtroom drama whipsaws him into a perilous fight for truth, and in a bold turn of events, he escapes from custody and vanishes into the countryside, seeking refuge in a remote cottage owned by his former schoolmate Nora Shelley Jean Arthur, who is now a schoolteacher. Nora has rented the place for the summer to the renowned law professor Michael Lightcap Ronald Colman, a man with dreams of writing a book in peace. The timing could not be more dramatic: Lightcap and Dilg arrive almost simultaneously, and Nora must decide how to shield the fugitive without tipping off her high-profile guest.
To keep Dilg hidden, Nora presents him as her gardener, Joseph, but the situation grows more tangled when a visitor arrives—Senator Boyd—who reveals that Lightcap is about to be nominated to the Supreme Court by the president. What follows is a lively collision of minds: Lightcap speaks from an academic, principled stance, while Dilg argues from hard-won experience. Their spirited discussions deepen a mutual respect and budding tension between them, and a complicated triangle emerges as Lightcap develops real affection for Nora.
With encouragement from Nora and Dilg’s own lawyer, Lightcap begins to probe the charges against the accused man. A crucial breakthrough comes when he uses his new romance with Regina Bush [Glenda Farrell], the girlfriend of the supposed victim, to uncover a world of deception: the foreman Bracken is not dead—he is alive and hiding in Boston. The trio travels there, traps Bracken, and forces him to return to Lochester where, under pressure, he confesses and implicates both the foreman and the mill owner in the arson plot.
Back in Lochester, tension erupts into a confrontation that ends with Bracken’s escape and leaves Dilg facing a new, volatile trial era. Lightcap retrieves a revolver and confronts Bracken, escorting him to the courthouse just as the town’s mob mood tips toward lynching. He fires a warning shot to draw attention, then delivers a powerful defense of the law’s authority and necessity, ultimately guiding Bracken and the mill owner to indictment and securing Dilg’s freedom.
The victory brings Lightcap a long-awaited appointment to the Supreme Court, a milestone he has chased for twenty years. Nora visits him, and he shares that his dream is fulfilled, while hoping for a future of happiness for his friends. He suggests that Nora should marry Dilg, a notion that unsettles the lovers and friends in equal measure. In the first courtroom seating of Lightcap as Associate Justice, Dilg misreads a moment of intimacy between Lightcap and Shelley as a sign that Nora intends to marry Lightcap, prompting him to leave in distress. Nora follows, and, in a quiet twist of understanding, Dilg realizes that Shelley has chosen him after all, sealing a hopeful, if bittersweet, ending for their circle.
