In the 1890s, Lawrence Stevens (Dick Powell) is an obituary writer unhappy in his job, who is given, by a ghostly deceased newspaper man named Pop Benson (John Philliber), a newspaper from the future. He uses the paper to write stories and get the scoop on other reporters; but this also brings him under suspicion by Police Inspector Mulrooney (Edgar Kennedy), who wants to know how Stevens always seems to know what's going to happen and where, mainly a robbery at a theater's box office during a performance. Stevens and his new girlfriend Sylvia (Linda Darnell) – half of a clairvoyance act with her uncle Oscar Smith (Jack Oakie) – have a number of adventures, until her uncle mistakenly thinks that Stevens has consorted with his niece in her boarding house room. The uncle attempts to intimidate Stevens into marrying her, not knowing that Stevens has come to him to ask for her hand.