A lone man walks through the sweltering streets of a deserted London. The film then goes back several months. Peter Stenning (Judd) had been an up-and-coming journalist with the "Daily Express", but since a divorce threw his life into disarray, he has been drinking too much (one of his lines is "Alcoholics of the press, unite!") and his work has suffered. His editor (Christiansen) has begun giving him lousy assignments. Stenning's only friend, Bill Maguire (McKern), is a veteran Fleet Street reporter who offers him encouragement and occasionally covers for him by writing his copy.