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Chick Hewes is released from prison and finds work as an accountant.  Two years later, Chick's crooked friend, Benny LaMarr, to whom he is indebted for past kindnesses, steals a diamond necklace from the home safe of the district attorney.  When the district attorney threatens to accuse the police of inefficiency in crime fighting, Garvey, who is campaigning for the office of police commissioner, promises to catch the thief in twenty-four hours.

Because Garvey suspects Benny, Detective Whip Fogarty, who put Chick in prison, goes after Chick to locate Benny.  While Chick and his wife Molly celebrate her birthday, her brother Charlie, a drug addict, hides Benny, who has been shot, in Chick's apartment.  When Fogarty arrives, Benny's girlfriend Myrtle cuts her finger to cover for the blood stains on Chick's couch, but Fogarty arrests her, then picks up Molly and Chick.  At the station, Garvey tells Myrtle all he wants is the necklace, but she refuses to talk and is released along with Chick and Molly.

At home, Charlie tells Chick that Benny is in the attic, bleeding to death.  As he dies, Benny offers to give the diamonds to Chick, but cannot find them.  While Myrtle pleads with Molly to let her see Benny, Chick dumps his body in the river and returns with Benny's gun.  Molly then accuses Charlie of taking the necklace, saying, "Come on, kick in."  After Charlie runs into the hands of waiting police, Myrtle kills herself in the attic just as Fogarty arrives and promises amnesty if the necklace is returned.  Chick gives him the necklace, but Fogarty double-crosses them and Molly is forced to knock him out with the gun.

Chick then resigns himself to a life of crime until Molly tells him she is pregnant.  Molly and Chick go to the police station with Fogarty's partner, Jack Diggs, after an unsuccessful attempt at meeting with the district attorney.  Garvey then forces Molly to confess she is covering for Charlie, who is being interrogated.  Charlie admits he stole the necklace from Benny, and Chick pulls the necklace from Diggs's pocket, where Chick had hidden it.  When Garvey learns that the Heweses are having a baby, he releases them along with Charlie.