Through the Eyes of Elmer Clifton: Decoding Daughters of the Night

Wild brothers Jimmy and Billy Roberts are disinherited by their wealthy father after being arrested for street brawling. Jimmy joins his crook friends, while Billy abandons his dissolute ways and gets a job as a telephone lineman in the town of Midvale. There, he falls in love with telephone operator Betty Blair, but her grandmother demands that she marry a rich lawyer named Kilmaster. The lawyer becomes jealous of Billy, and when he discovers that a private detective has been asking questions about the lineman, he spreads rumors that Billy is a criminal character. Meanwhile, by coincidence, Jimmy and his pals arrive in Midvale, cut a local bank's telephone wires, and rob it. When Billy hurries to the bank to repair the wires, he discovers which way the robbers have fled and alerts police. Jimmy, meanwhile, becomes separate from his gang during the getaway and ducks into the telephone building, which is on fire because a stray bullet fired during the nearby bank robbery broke a lamp. Jimmy and Betty become trapped in separate rooms. Jimmy telephones his ailing mother long distance with a final message before a wall caves in on him. When Billy telephones Betty with the message that the gang has been cornered in the next town, she tells him she is trapped in the fire. Jumping on his motorcycle, Billy rushes to the telephone building and carries the unconscious Betty to safety. He learns that his father, who found him through the private detective, wants to help him financially, but Billy turns down the offer, happy to be the breadwinner in his marriage to Betty.