Victor Shanley (Litel) is a washed-up former district attorney who is arrested during a police raid on skid row.

Carol then takes him home and cleans him up, where he declares that since being on the right side of the law never did him any good, he plans to work as a defense lawyer for criminal boss Al Kruger and his ring of auto thieves.

Despite his ongoing success defending Kruger and his gang, Shanley still feels compelled to do good deeds, mostly influenced by Carol's kind nature.

In an effort to help Bob Terrill, a young man caught up in Kruger's auto-theft gang, Shanley offers to pay for his school tuition so he can study aeronautical engineering and end his life of crime.

[1][3] 1937's Midnight Court (originally titled, Justice After Dark) was the first film Ann Dvorak appeared in for Warner Bros. after being dismissed by the studio in 1935 for purportedly being too ill to work.