A dizzy old spinster gets involved in the boxing racket and gangland murders as is falsely accused of being notorious murderer "Ma Parker."

Aunt Emma Bates (Zasu Pitts), a spinster, visits the "Big Town" to see a boxing match participated in by Mickey O'Banion (Malcolm 'Bud' McTaggart), son of Emma's old fiancé who was himself a boxing champion. At the arena Emma sits next to Terry (Roger Pryor), a reporter who is trying to track down Rex Crenshaw (Irving Mitchell), lawyer for gangster "Flower" Henderson (Tristram Coffin), who has been kidnapped by rival gang-leader Gus Hammond (Douglas Fowley), and manager of Mickey. After the fight Emma is mistaken for a notorious gun-woman named Ma Parker, and suspected by Hammond's henchmen of working in the interests of Henderson. Mickey is shot during an altercation at Henderson's nightclub and is later kidnapped from the hospital by his manager's men and taken to an East Side outlaw. Emma, in an effort to free Mickey, and with the aid of Maris (Gwen Kenyon), Terry's fiancée, decides to pose as Ma Parker.—Les Adams <[email protected]>

A meek middle-aged spinster, down-trodden by her two older sisters at home, makes a sentimental visit to the big city to see the boxer son of her long dead childhood beau. There she finds him falling victim to the fight rackets, and is herself caught in the crossfire between rival gangsters, who mistakenly believe that she is the eponymous head of the notorious Ma Parker gang. Teaming up with a sports reporter juggling his work and his love life, she employs her own unique blend of naive innocence and no-nonsense realism to see that everybody gets their just deserts, herself included.—David Kelsey