In Brooklyn, fishing is the hobby of the workers Jonah Goodwin and Olaf Johnson and they use to 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 that dreams on leaving her neighborhood. She is the sweetheart of the worker George Watkins, a simple man that dreams on marrying her. When the smalltime gangster Harold Goff arrives in Brooklyn, he extorts money from Jonah and Olaf to "protect" their boat from fire and dates Stella. Jonah tries to convince his daughter that Goff is a racketeer that takes money out of poor ordinary people but she does not care to her father 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 to Jonah. Now the old man is convinced that the only chance to get rid off Goff is to fight back.