A crusading newspaper editor keeps digging into corruption, even when he''s forced to write advice to the lovelorn.

When managing editor Samuel N. Bradshaw, known as Brad, learns that prominent lawyer Frank J. Canfield, the head of the governor's investigating committee, has disappeared along with a large sum of money, he refuses to make the story front page news, because there is no proof that the normally honest Canfield absconded with the missing funds. After every other paper in town features the story with inch-high headlines, the paper's owner, J. L. Graham, chastises Brad for missing the scoop. Brad defends Canfield and J. L. fires him. When Brad points out that his contract does not allow him to be fired, J. L. agrees to keep him on staff as the writer of the lonely hearts column. The current writer, ace reporter Gerry Krale, who had herself been demoted to that position by Brad, is delighted by the news. Brad is furious but has no choice other than to accept the position. He keeps his eye on the Canfield story, however, with the help of Shammy, another reporter. After Gerry accuses him of having no guts because he cannot handle a job that she did without complaining for eight months, Brad puts his skills to work on the column and it becomes extremely popular. One day, Rosa Marinello comes to the newspaper office looking for Nellie Nelson, the pseudonym of the column's author. She begs Nellie to intercede with her undertaker father, who no longer wants her to marry her fiancé. When Brad learns that Canfield was last seen at the same address where Rosa lives, he agrees to go. Brad and Shammy learn that gangsters Marinello and Beau Brownell attended a burial around the time of Canfield's disappearance and that the death certificate was forged. They then discover that Canfield was framed and murdered by his rival, Thompson. Brad advises Brownell to dig up Canfield's body and transfer it to another grave. He gets a photograph of the body and rushes it to the paper. The result is that Brownell is tried for murder, Canfield's name is cleared, and Brad, whose responsible journalism has been vindicated, is returned to the managing editor position.