Set and filmed on location in the tenement section of New York's Lower East Side, the film tells the story of a young boy, Tommy Woodry (Bobby Driscoll), who has a habit of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Late one night, he climbs up the building fire escape and sees his two seemingly normal neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Kellerson (Paul Stewart (actor) and Ruth Roman), murder a drunken sailor in their apartment. No one – neither the boy's parents nor the police – believes young Tommy when he tells them what he has seen, since they all assume that this is just another of the boy's tall tales.