Mobster Bugs Kelley stubbornly refuses to become part of the syndicate that rules organized crime like a business in the city. He further antagonizes "Crime Inc." by kidnapping Tony Marlowe, one of the syndicate's most important members, and holding him for ransom. When crusading reporter Mike Egan begins dating Kelley's sister Betty, a nightclub singer, Kelley begins feeding him information on the workings of the criminal organization. Although Crime Inc. is being investigated by a Grand Jury, it keeps ahead of District Attorney Dixon's efforts because it has his secretary and several top police detectives on its payroll. All potential witnesses and threats against it are murdered, as is ultimately D.A. Dixon and Kelley. The organization is finally broken when a meeting of its board contracting for Jim and Betty's murder is secretly filmed, and its head is revealed to be none other than Wayne Clark, head of the crime commission. Jim and Betty are now free to be married.