As a result of mistaken eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence, cab driver Brick Tennant (Henry Fonda) and his friend, Joe Linden, are sentenced to die for murder. Certain they are innocent, Brick's fiancée, Mary Roberts (Maureen O'Sullivan), enlists Detective Lieutenant Everett (Ralph Bellamy) to find the car that was mistaken for Brick's taxi. Though a team of newsboys locates the missing cab and leads him to the culprits, Everett is suspended for trying to help the condemned men. And when they cannot convince the police to make an arrest, Everett and Mary are forced to capture the real killers themselves in order to save Brick and Joe from being put to death for a crime they didn't commit.