Kelly O'Quinn is a rookie reporter on the "Chicago Daily News" in the late 1950s and, although she wants to be a police reporter, she is assigned to writing cheery copy about engagements and weddings in the features department. She is sent on a routine assignment and literally puts her foot into a case of murder and stolen Mexican antiquities. She is soon sent to Mexico in pursuit of the story and meets a handsome American and has her life threatened. She returns to Chicago, where her police-lieutenant father persuades her to act as a decoy to trap the culprits.