While investigating a bogus murder story in a black neighborhood, a reporter, Lucy "Tex" Warren (
Claire Trevor) notices a little girl named Sunny who appears to be white. Tex also encounters Sunny's mother, Flora Jackson (
Fredi Washington), a fair-skinned black seamstress. Suspicious of the relationship between the two, Tex and other reporters investigate, only to turn up evidence (photos and a hospital record) that support Flora's claim. Tex then encounters a prison convict who claims that Sunny is the child of a deceased criminal Cliff Lucas, whose wife, Barbara (
Sally Blane), had attempted to leave with the baby and wound up in a car accident. Lucas had secretly tailed Barbara and took the baby from the wreck while his wife was unconscious. Upon waking in the hospital, Barbara was told that the baby had died. Lucas hired Flora to take care of the child; he told her that his wife deserted him and the baby. After Lucas was killed by police, Flora did not want the baby to go to an orphanage, so she reared Sunny as her own. Barbara, on being informed that her daughter is still alive, applies to recover her child. After seeing Flora and Sunny's strong attachment to each other, she asks Flora to live with them as a nurse. The judge forbids Tex to publish the story, feeling that the notoriety would negatively affect Sunny. == Cast ==