On the morning when a man is set to be hung for killing a bigoted neighbor, the sun fails to rise. The local newspaperman in town take this as an omen, proving that an innocent man is about to pay for a crime he committed in self-defense, due to possible laziness on the part of the sheriff while investigating the murder, and the deputy perjuring himself at the trial.

A struggling ventriloquist (Jackie Cooper) has a dummy who talks him into a life of crime.