Screen legend James Cagney plays Jimmy 'Red' Cave, an investigator for the Department of Weights and Measures, in this fast-talking tale of corruption within the meat industry. The problem begins when it comes to light that the city's shopkeepers have been charging too much for their meat products, but it's an organised racket and one government investigator has already taken a beating over it. But then Jimmy comes along, and with his unorthodox methods and the talents he learned as a one-time boxer, those crooks had better watch out.