Lawyer Tommy Farrell is a defender of crooks. Vicki Gaye encourages him to go straight, but mob king Rico Angelo insists otherwise.

Lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career defending crooks in trials. He has never realized that there is a downside to his success, until he meets the dancer Vicki Gaye. She makes him decide to get a better reputation. But mob king Rico Angelo *insists* that he continues his services.—Mattias Thuresson

It's the early 1930s Chicago. Tommy Farrell is the lawyer for mob boss Rico Angelo. Tommy, who takes the law seriously despite his primary client, feels he has had to work harder in life due to walking with a limp the result of a childhood accident, the injured hip which was not set properly. It is at one of Rico's parties, which like most mob parties are filled with showgirls paid to be there, that Tommy meets Vicki Gaye, one of the showgirls performing at the Golden Rooster nightclub backed largely by Rico. Despite their complicated beginning - Tommy who saved her from the unwanted advances of Rico's primary thug, "Lucky" Louie Canetto - Tommy and Vicki fall in love and want to do the right things for each other in non-material ways. They, however cannot get married as Tommy is already married in paper only to a gold-digger who refuses to let him go as she sees him as her meal ticket. Tommy and Vicki push each other to want to be better than they are in their current lives, which leads to Tommy making the decision to leave Chicago to go straight. Already difficult enough to do, it is made all the more difficult by Tommy agreeing to one last mob case in defending Rico's associate Cookie La Motte against several charges which if convicted could send him to the electric chair. Tommy hesitated in accepting in knowing that while someone like Rico kills for business, Cookie kills for pleasure. In the process, Tommy ends up getting caught in the middle between Rico and the state who wants Tommy to help them put away Rico, each side trying to use Vicki as their pawn in getting Tommy to do what they want, which on Rico's side may mean the threat to maim or kill her.—Huggo