Gangsters posing as police officers offer a woman a chance to make money if she helps them out.

Rick and Dot, two penniless New Yorkers, meet and fall in love in Central Park. Promising to meet later, they separate. Dot is picked up by small-time hood Nick Sarno, posing as a police inspector, who promises to pay her $100 to help in a sting operation at a local charity benefit. She agrees, unaware that Nick and his gang are merely using her to steal the charity receipts themselves. Rick, picked up by Sarno for being seen talking to Dot, is held captive by the gang at their hideout. He breaks loose and rushes to the charity affair to try to save Dot before she becomes involved in the heist.—Doug Sederberg <[email protected]>

Dot and Rick, both unemployed, meet over two hot dogs that Dot has stolen from a Central Park stand. After sharing the meal, they separate to look for work, agreeing to meet for lunch. On her way out of the park, Dot (Joan Blondell) is picked up by a police car. Inside, Nick Sarno (Harold Huber) offers her a strange undercover job. In the park men's room, Rick (Wallace Ford) meets Charlie (Guy Kibbee), a park policeman, who sends him to the police station to see about a job washing motorcycles. Charlie's eyesight has gotten very bad, but he keeps it a secret, hoping nothing will happen before he retires in a week. Charlie learns from Eby (Henry B. Walthall), a zoo employee, that former zoo keeper Smiley (John Wray) has escaped from the mental institution. At lunch, when Dot and Rick meet, Dot admits that she isn't sure the deal she was offered by Nick is legitimate. Rick advises her to take it, but when he leaves the lunchroom, he is picked up by two of Nick's men and taken to a room where they hold him captive. Rick now knows that Dot is being used by Nick's men, who intend to rob a beauty contest fundraiser that is supposed to benefit the unemployed. Meanwhile, at the zoo, Charlie greets a man standing some distance away, failing to recognize insane Smiley. Smiley steals Charlie's keys, locks him in a room, and attacks Luke (Charles Sellon), another zoo keeper, pushing him into the lion's cage. The park crew hears Luke's screams and releases him, but the lion escapes in the confusion and Charlie is suspended for failing his duty. Rick escapes and finally convinces the police that a robbery is going on inside the fundraiser. A shootout ensues and Rick chases after the escaping thieves. The escape car crashes near the bench where Charlie is resting. When Charlie investigates the crash, Nick shoots him. Rick arrives in time to capture Nick, but the police are convinced that Rick is really the thief. Just before he dies, Charlie clears Rick. After the lion is captured, Smiley is picked up and Rick and Dot leave Central Park together.