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 (Vickie Lester), and local attorney Lloyd Wilson (Vinton Hayworth) 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 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.