A chance meeting with reporter Russ Bassett leads to an introduction to nightclub owner Les Bauer, who employs Lila as a 'flash girl' to take pictures at the club.

A newspaper gossip-columnist, Roy Carver, surreptitiously offers to pay her $5 for candid shots of important guests.

After flattering high-society maven Mrs. Payton Grange, a former client of West, with a rare good photo, Crane's exclusive makes a name for her as a photographer.

She quickly becomes well-known and well-paid, acquiring her own clients and contracts, and resisting Russ Bassett's offer to get her a steady, respectable job with his news-agency employer.

Bassett realizes Crane is in trouble and rushes to her apartment where he disarms one of the kidnappers and forces him to reveal where she's being held.