Gyppo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) is a former soldier in war-torn Dublin, who has fallen out of favor with the IRA. He is not the smartest man around, and has no money to his name. He is starving and struggling to live. To make matters even worse, he soon discovers that his love, Katie (Margot Grahame), is now a prostitute, as she is also in dire straights. Desperate to turn his and Katie's lives back around, Gyppo informs on a former friend Franke McPhillip (Wallace Ford), and is given 20 pounds in exchange. This money is enough to get Gyppo and Katie passage to America, but when Gyppo learns that his friend was killed due to the information given, Gyppo goes on a drunken spree.