Pete Smith, a rookie cop, is assigned to run down Scarface Marcas, a crook leader whom he once befriended. (A friendship that developed between the two when Smith, caretaker of a drawbridge, nursed Marcas, wounded in a gun battle, quickly terminated when Marcas secretly left, taking with him Smith's overcoat and bankroll.) Smith doubles his efforts when his best friend, Sergeant Coughlin, dies in a gun battle with Marcas. Dressed in plain clothes, Smith finds Marcas, shoots him, and rescues Mary Monks, a girl who was in Marcas' power.