The story is set in a rural village, where the village mayor gives a speech at the local community center as a theater troupe visits the village for the first time in several years.
In 1834, Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the spoiled, dissolute son of a shipping magnate, is shanghaied aboard the Pilgrim, one of his father's own ships.
The cattle herds of some Arizona ranchers are being stampeded and stolen, so the Arizona Stockmen's Syndicate sends ace investigator Steve Reynolds in to find out who is responsible.
In the studio where the famous director Eric Von Berg reigns, Pierre Vanier, the male star of the film and the lover of Berg's muse, dies while rehearsing a scene.
The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor to a management position based on suggestions he made to improve the act of the show's star, who also happens to be the owner's wife.
A lawyer who is planning to run for District Attorney accidentally kills a gangster who owns the nightclub where the attorney's girlfriend is a singer.