A construction engineer with a heart of steel courts a social worker with a heart of gold, while fighting a protection racketeer that tries to derail the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Mack - George Brent, a construction foreman who is working on the Golden Gate Bridge, meets social worker Lynn Palmer - Kay Francis. Mack insists Lynn leave her job so they can get married but Lynn does not agree. Meanwhile, Sharkey - Barton MacLane, a racketeer, goes after Mack for protection money. When Mack refuses, Sharkey starts meddling with his construction crew. When Mack's men threaten to quit, Lynn must help him resolve his crisis.
Lynn Palmer (Kay Francis) is a volunteer for Travelers Aid in San Francisco who goes out of her way to help for immigrants, travelers, the unemployed and the homeless. Mack Hale (George Brent) is a construction manager on the Golden Gate Bridge (which would not be completed until 1937), who comes to Lynn's station seeking information about a worker he wants to hire. Lynn and Mack are attracted to each other, despite their different personalities and outlook. Lynn's roommate, Velma Tuthill (Patricia Ellis), is the daughter of one of the bridge's backers (Henry O'Neill) and is also attracted to Mack.
Lynn and Mack date, even though he is often put off by how she turns her attentions to people he thinks are unworthy. In the meantime, Mack comes under pressure from a protection racket mob led by "Sharkey" (Barton MacLane). Sharkey bribes and manipulates some workers to create dangerous conditions that cause Mack to fire them. Though Mack has proposed marriage, Lynn rejects his demand that she quit her work helping others. Mack, however, is threatened with a walkout by the workers over his apparent callousness and accusations that he caused a worker's death, all instigated by Sharkey. At a workers' meeting, Lynn helps to expose Sharkey's plot and clear Mack's name with the men, who turn on Sharkey. Mack admits to Lynn that he was wrong to look down on others less fortunate than himself, and the two are reunited with the promise that they can each devote themselves to the work for which each cares.
