Crime writer Dave Nelson is having a bad day – ordered to share his office with ambitious rival Rosemary Speed, brushed off by the pretty food editor Laura Martin, and passed over as editor of a new magazine in favour of handsome Bill Strayte, who enjoys the affections of Miss Martin. Fed up, Nelson goes to a bar, meets a woman named Christy, and gets stinking drunk. Christy escorts Nelson to a fleabag hotel and checks him in.
The next morning, a hung-over Nelson awakens to discover himself alone in the room. Barely able to function, he manages to find his way home, and finds Strayte lying on his apartment floor, dead. Nelson dials 999. When the police arrive Inspector Crambo hears Nelson's alibi and holds off making an arrest – for now. However, when Crambo is unable to verify the existence of Christy or other details of Nelson's story, things begin to look bad. Nelson enlists his new office-mate Miss Speed to help him discover who killed Strayte.
