John Garfield is Johnny, a tough NYC boxer who becomes champ. He attends a drunken party where a reporter is murdered. The killer himself dies in a flaming auto wreck, but not before he successfully shifts the blame to Johnny. He flees the city & hides out at a boy's camp out west, populated by The Dead End Kids. All seems ok until a detective (Claude Rains) who was on the murder case, happens by.