In exchange for fulfilling her request for a children's wing, the city council asks her to withdraw the book The Communist Dream from the library's collection.

However, ambitious attorney and aspiring politician Paul Duncan, who is dating assistant librarian Martha Lockridge, undermines those efforts by publicly revealing Alicia's past associations with organizations that turned out to be Communist fronts.

Alicia notes that she resigned as soon as she found out the true nature of the organizations, but Duncan's incendiary revelations result in only a handful of people showing up to the meeting.

The visualization of this drama is clumsy and abrupt...Mr. Blaustein and Mr. Taradash have tried nobly, but they have failed to develop a film that whips up dramatic excitement or flames with passion in support of its theme."

"[6] Time wrote that the film "makes reading seem nearly as risky a habit as dope...[It] is paved and repaved with good intentions; its heart is insistently in the right place; its leading characters are motivated by the noblest of sentiments.

"[8] The National Legion of Decency stated the "propaganda film offers a warped, over-simplified emotional solution to the complex problems of civil liberties in American life".

Daily Variety responded to the Legion by suggesting "It's almost impossible to over-dramatize human liberty whether it's a depiction of Patrick Henry...or a librarian sacrificing her reputation rather than her democratic principles.