Jimmy Duncan, the son of the well-respected Reverend Duncan, takes over his local newspaper as manager. He takes on the criminal element in town with great vigor, until he realizes that his own father is in league with those devils.

When struggling playwright Jimmy Duncan returns home on a freight train, his father, Rev. John Duncan, is ashamed to receive him, and the town officials, most of whom are corrupt, treat him coldly. Only David Landis, the editor of a newspaper dedicated to the removal of corruption in Warchester, and his daughter Carol treat him with kindness and respect. Jimmy leaves town and becomes a famous playwright under an assumed name, while Carol becomes the toast of the New York stage. When Landis dies, Carol returns home and learns that her father has willed the Chronicle to Jimmy, who uses it to expose the gangsters and rout them out of office. Carol discovers that Jimmy wrote the play that made her a star and accepts his marriage proposal.—Pamela Short