Boyhood friends grow up into different professions: one a dedicated Canadian Mountie, the other a notorious gambler.

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Hank McHenry and Johnny Marshall work as power company linesmen. Hank is injured in an accident and subsequently promoted to foreman of the gang. Tensions start to show in the road crew as rivalry between Hank and Johnny increases.

Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.