The policy-racket reaches it lean, bony fingers into the ivy-towers of a large university and the underworld trying to “beat the numbers-racket” with applied mathematics. One of the professors, Tom Barry is murdered in the Dean’s office.

Suspected crime boss Nate Girard beats a murder rap, and newspaper photog Kent Murdock is on the story. Girard and lawyer Redfield throw a party for the news men where Murdock romances a mystery woman who confronted Girard in front of him, but Murdock's fiancée Hester shows up. After they return to his apartment, have a fight, and she leaves, the mystery woman slips in and begs for his help. Police Inspector Bacon and the cops show up, looking for the mystery woman; Murdock hides her. Murdock goes with the cops to discuss the murder the woman is suspected of. Bacon explains (in flashback) how some photogs were setting up a shot with Girard and Redfield. When the flashbulbs popped, Redfield keeled over dead and the woman, Meg Archer, fled while the newsmen ran out to phone their papers. The newsmen (who were rounded up later as thoroly as possible) are taken into police custody, except for Murdock (who wasn't at the scene), who is given a cap on the sly by rival McGoogin. Altho ...

Smugglers are using a device for controlling airplanes in flight, and newspaper reporters from Chicago are vying for the story. Reporter Elmer Lane is out to scoop rival reporter Betty Harrison, and capture her heart in the process.

An escaped circus lion provides the impetus for the meeting of carnival owner Nick Coster and Matt Varney, a small-town man who suddenly becomes a lion tamer when he manages to subdue the big cat. While acclimating to carnival life, Matt begins a romance with Nick's sister, Mary, causing tension between Matt and Nick. The latter must also juggle his stormy relationship with glamorous circus star Flo Lorraine.

Hospital intern Allen Meighan assures himself residency when he saves the life of a man trapped in an explosion. Allen is in love with student nurse Claire Donahue, and she with him, but she's married to the physically abusive Tom.

A mother experiences the torment of discovering that her own son is a killer.

In late 1941, with no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.

Disguising himself as a milquetoast Easterner who writes Western novels, Hoppy enrolls in a dude ranch in order to unmask the murderer of the owner's husband.

Dr. Kildare treats and falls for impoverished ex-con Janet Haley, widow of a bank robber, who can't find her baby. Later she helps Kildare sew up gangster Hanlon in a tavern back room. Kildare pursues Janet and enlists Hanlon to help her; the gangster's solution, not surprisingly, is violent.

A dashing pilot and a vivacious reporter have romantic and dramatic adventures in Europe as World War II begins.