A gangster's moll runs home to mother, with reporters and amateur detectives hot on her tail.

Hilda decides to quit being a gun moll and go visit her mother, who is the housekeeper for the Randall family. The Randalls go on vacation, leaving son Robert behind to embark upon a career as a reporter. Soon after, Benny, a meek flower vendor, follows showgirl Gladys Fontaine when Floyd, a mob chieftan, forces her to join him on his houseboat. Fearing for Gladys' life, Benny puts poison in a cup of coffee intended for Floyd, but Gladys drinks it instead, and Benny watches in horror as Floyd tosses the dead girl's body into the river. The next morning, Robert reads about Gladys' death and decides to cover the story, attaching himself to ace criminal reporter Deakon Maxwell and photographer Ed O'Malley. At a police interrogation session, they witness Benny confess to Gladys' murder and Robert, taking pity on the little man, befriends him. After a night of drinking on the town with Deakon and Ed, Benny suggests to the drunken Robert that he call his editor and tell him that Gladys was thrown from a houseboat. Waking up the next morning with no memory of the evening's events, Robert finds that his story has scooped the other newspapers and that he is being hailed as a hero. Robert's story leads Floyd to believe that the reporter has the goods on him, and he orders him eliminated. As the gang converges on the Randall house, Deakon and Ed are shooting fireworks from the roof and, believing that the fireworks are the sound of gun shots, the gangsters open fire. As the mobsters begin dropping dead from Benny's poisoned coffee, the police come to the rescue and Robert announces his engagement to Hilda.