An escaped convict redeems himself by becoming an auto racing champion.

Tugboat, the Narcissus, is owned and captained by Annie Brennan, and among her crew are her alcoholic but good-natured husband, Terry, and her conscientious son, Alec. Annie continually loses business because of Terry's drunken mistakes. Alec wants to quit school to work on the tug full time, but Annie will not sacrifice her son's education. A grown Alec has followed in his mother's footsteps and becomes a mariner, but a more upscale one as the captain of a luxury liner. Alec returns home with his fiancée, Pat - the boss' daughter - with a grand plan to save Annie from the life that drunkard Terry has provided her. But ultimately, it's Annie and Terry that need to be Alec's savior, and by their move show him the meaning of true commitment.

Members of a teenage gang are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner, arrives and takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. Thompson needs a quick way to discredit him.

The growth of small-town juvenile crime starts a movement for the construction of a youth center. The project leaders discuss with town mayor Phineas Wharton Sr. about buying an old warehouse and rebuilding it as the Center. However, Wharton has plans to buy it himself for another project from which he would profit. But the Teen-Agers--Freddie, Dodie, Betty, Lee and Roy--now attending San Juan Junior College, think otherwise.