In Brooklyn, fishing is the hobby of the workers Jonah Goodwin and Olaf Johnson and they fish every night in their old boat. Jonah's daughter is the twenty-one year-old telephone operator Stella Goodwin, who is an ambitious young woman who dreams on leaving her neighborhood. She is the sweetheart of the worker George Watkins, a simple man who dreams of marrying her. After the small time gangster Harold Goff arrives in Brooklyn, he extorts money from Jonah and Olaf to protect their boat from fire, and he dates Stella. Jonah tries to convince his daughter that Goff is a racketeer who takes money from poor, ordinary people but she does not care since she sees Goff as her chance to have a comfortable life and visit new places. When she discloses to Goff that her father has savings, Goff demands the money from Jonah. Now the old man is convinced that the only chance to get rid of Goff is to fight back.