 While traveling by train, screenwriter Michael  Mike  Winslow makes three acquaintances: a just-out-of-prison ex-convict, Herman Tibbets; the convict s wife, Goldie Tibbets; and aspiring actress, Barbara Lang. The train arrives in Hollywood, and Mike collaborates with Herman on a screenplay about a gangster for Wonder Studios. The film, "The Trail of the Hawk", starring matinée idol Thomas Darcy, is a smash hit, but soon a real gangster whom Tibbets had known in the slammer (also called  The Hawk ) comes poking around the studio. He s not happy to be portrayed on the screen - and he intends to make Mike and Herman pay for it!