An attorney defends a young hoodlum charged with murdering a policeman using the oppressiveness of his client's upbringing in the slums to appeal to the sympathies of the jury.

Andrew Morton is a lawyer who arose from the slums to achieve a prominent position as a well-respected defense attorney. Nick Romano is his latest client, a young man with a long rap sheet. After Nick gambles away the paycheck he was hoping to use to buy his wife some jewelry, she informs him that she's pregnant. Later he finds her dead from suicide. When he turns again to robbery, he's caught by a cop and pumps all his bullets into him in frustration. Morton's appeal to the court emphasizes the evil, dehumanizing nature of life in the slums.—Ed Stephan / edited by Hans Delbruck

The police are rounding up any known criminals in the vicinity in the aftermath of a holdup in which a police officer was subsequently shot dead. One of those taken in is hoodlum Nick Romano, nicknamed "Pretty Boy" because of his youthful age and good looks, who is ultimately charged despite the evidence against him being slim. He turns to lawyer Andrew Morton. While Morton has known Nick for years and has thus unofficially been his lawyer over that time, Morton, who ends up taking the case, contemplated breaking off ties with Nick in that association having a negative impact especially on his professional life, the partners at his law firm who imply that he taking the case would jeopardize his chances of making partner. Much of Morton's case will depend on the testimony of Nick's friends, Butch and Sunshine--if Morton can find them--as Nick swears he was out for drinks with them when the incident happened. But arguably for Morton, what he may want to impress on the jury, if for his own sake and that of Nick and others like him, is the role that society has played in not giving someone like Nick a fair shake in life, Morton knowing his own indirect role leading to Nick's situation.—Huggo