Former socialite Bonnie Jordan (Joan Crawford) and her brother Rodney (William Bakewell) have their lives turned upside down one day when their father loses his entire fortune in the stock market crash, and subsequently dies of a heart attack.

Due to their inheritance being wiped out overnight, the siblings are forced to fire their wait staff, sell their belongings, and work to earn a living.

Things only get worse when Bonnie's journalist colleague Bert Scranton (Cliff Edwards) finds out too much, and Gang chief Jake Luva (Clark Gable) orders Rodney to murder him under threat of death, leaving him no choice but to go through with it.

Andre Sennwald noted in The New York Times, Miss Crawford's acting is still self-conscious, but her admirers will find her performance well up to her standard.

[1] Several events in the screenplay are based loosely on real-life crimes that occurred in Chicago prior to the film's production, such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 and the murder of reporter Jake Lingle by underworld hoodlums in 1930.