 New York city reporter Bill Terry (Allan Lane) and his photographer-assistant Candid Perry (Jack Carson) follow an eloping heiress to a small New York town where he hears the marriage license clerk, Jud Holcomb (Victor Moore), give advice to the eloping couple, and he learns that no couple who has received a license from Jud has ever been divorced. Bill writes a story and Jud becomes a celebrity. Bill falls in love with Jud s daughter, Nancy (Vicki Lester), and local attorney Lloyd Wilson (Vinton Haworth as Jack Arnold) finds he has become a jilted suitor. Jud is pleased as he dislikes Wilson because he is too friendly with roadhouse owner and political power-holder Joe Selby (Richard Lane), who controls Mayor Frisbee (Frank M. Thomas), Commissioner Perkins (Bryant Washburn) and Police Chief Hardy (Cecil Kellaway). Bill and Candid recognize Selby as a former NY gangster who had framed his partner Frankie Spencer (Paul Gulifoyle) and then gone away with Frankie s girl friend Bella Lawson (Kay Sutton), who is singing in Joe s nightclub. Jud runs for mayor on a reform ticket, but Selby kills Frankie and frames Jud for it.