The unscrupulous Jimmy Corrigan (James Cagney), runs an agency that searches for inheritance of those who have died without leaving a Will (law), and often provides phony claimants in order to collect his fee. When his former girlfriend Joan Martin (Bette Davis), who left him because of his lack of Ethics (philosophy), accepts a position at the allegedly legitimate firm owned by Charles Wallingham (Alan Dinehart), Corrigan investigates Wallingham's background and discovers his rival is even more duplicitous than he is. He exposes Wallingham as a phony and promises to go straight if Joan will come back to him.