The film flashes back to thirty-six hours earlier. Stroud is eager to go on a long-postponed honeymoon in Wheeling, West Virginia, with his wife Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan) and son. His tyrannical boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) wants him to stay and follow up on a missing persons story Stroud has just cracked, but Stroud refuses and Janoth fires him. Stroud goes to a bar to drink and is distracted by the attentions of Janoth's glamorous mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson), who proposes a blackmail plan against Janoth. When Stroud loses track of time and misses their scheduled train, Georgette angrily leaves for Wheeling without him. Stroud spends the evening drinking and going out on the town with York at various locations, buying a painting and a sundial.