When G-men team up with police to end racketeering, gang leader William Waldo takes his moll, Babe Devoe, and mugs Blackie White, Happy, Horseface and Sy to the small town where he was born to hide out. While there, Bill renews his friendship with the Thorntons, whose daughter Myrtle, a church organist, has loved Bill since they were children. One night, Bill and his gang attend a church festival, and when Bill is asked to give a speech, he exhorts the generous people to help the less fortunate. The minister takes the offerings gathered, but when the gang returns home, Bill tells them that the religion racket will be their next undertaking. The others are skeptical, but Bill is a charismatic speaker and soon makes a name for himself as an evangelist. Myrtle leads Bill's choir, and is impressed by his apparent religious fervor, even when she overhears two FBI men confront Bill and vow to break-up his latest scam when they get enough evidence. Myrtle reassures Bill that she has faith in him, and despite Bill's derision of Myrtle behind her back, Babe suspects that he is falling for her. Bill realizes that exposing his past and claiming to be reformed will draw more followers, and on this premise he builds a successful radio program. The FBI are stumped by Bill's activities, for they can find no evidence of tax evasion or embezzlement of funds intended for the poor. Rogers and Carlton, undercover men who have infiltrated Bill's organization, are even convinced that Bill is on the level. Unknown to them, Bill is shaking down other racketeers for substantial "contributions" to prevent Bill from exposing them during his radio sermons. The "collections" are coordinated by Bill's lawyer, Porky Langdon, who protests when Bill states that their next target will be powerful business man Alden Parker. Langdon warns Bill that Parker is too big, but Bill reveals that Parker escaped from a state penitentiary twenty years ago and is actually a racketeer named Gordini. Before Bill can settle the affair, Myrtle is seriously injured in an automobile accident. The distraught Bill takes Babe's jealous advice to practice what he preaches and spends the night praying. The next morning, Myrtle is miraculously on the road to recovery, and Bill is a changed man. He gives the gang their share of the latest takings and tells them that he is going straight. All of them storm out except Sy, who offers to continue his work. Bill sends him to tell Parker to get out of business or else be exposed, and Parker's henchmen kill Sy as he is returning home. Bill then announces that he will reveal the name of Sy's killer in his next broadcast. The FBI send four men to protect Bill, but to no avail, for Parker's men shoot him just as he is about to say Parker's name. Bill still manages to expose Parker, and before he collapses, he urges Babe, who has also decided to go straight, to help Myrtle with the church. The FBI round up Parker and his men and learn that Bill, tended by the devoted Myrtle, will recover.