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Although Lionel Barrymore was miscast as a gunman, he overcame this drawback by giving the role of Boomerang Bill an intensely human quality. The story opens with a young man about to leave the world of the straight and narrow. A detective approaches him and points out a broken-down soul -Boomerang Bill -- and uses his tale to convince the youth that crime does not pay. Bill was a gunman, but when he saved pretty Annie (Marguerite Marsh -- sister of Mae Marsh) from the unwanted attentions of gangster Tony the Wop (Matthew Betts), he fell in love. Because of his feelings for Annie, he decided to go straight. But when her mother (Margaret Seddon) needed to go to the country for her health, Bill did one last heist to get up the needed funds. Tony was responsible for his capture, and Bill went to prison. Annie loyally offered to wait for him, but when her mother's illness continued, he let her go so she could marry a man who would support both her and her mother. When Bill got out of prison he went to see Annie, but as he peered through the window, he saw her happy with her mother and baby. So he went off to spend the rest of his days with a little Chinese girl who once cared for him. The story to this crime drama was based on the book by Jack Boyle, who wrote the Boston Blackie stories.