Hearts of Humanity

Genial Irish NYC policeman Tom O'Hara is looking forward to the arrival of his wife and their young son, Shandy from Ireland. Several days before the ship is to dock, O'Hara gets a radiogram informing him that his wife has died at sea. That night a burglar breaks into the Antigue & Second Hand Shop ran by Sol Bloom, directly below O'Hara's flat. The burglar shoots O'Hara, who has rushed to his friend's aid, and, with his last breath he asks Sol to take care of Shandy. When Shandy arrives, Sol immediately makes him a member of the family, which also consists of a very mischievous motherless boy named Joey Bloom, whose pursuits consist of stealing oranges from fruit-dealer Tony, and playing hookey from school. Tom Varney, the young beat cop, is in love with Ruth Sneider, whose mother runs a Cleaning and Dyeling establishment. Ruth, however, is momentarily dazed with worthless Dave Haller, whose flashy clothes and snappy car indicates easy money. Shandy likes to visit Dave's apartment and listen to the radio. Dave drops and breaks a bottle of liquid, tells Shandy it is furniture polish and tells him not to mention the incident. Unknown to Dave, Shandy takes a bottle of it home. Polishing the wood on the cash drawer with the liquid, Shandy notes that one of the six dollars he had placed there from a sale is missing, immediately suspects Joey and sets out to find him. Tom drops by the shop and notices that the polish has taken the finish off of the wood, sniffs the contents of the "polish" bottle, takes a taste and discovers it is bootleg gin. Shandy returns and tells Tom where he acquired the bottle. Tom arrests Dave and Ruth thinks it is out of jealousy. Shandy pawns a harp his mother had left him to replace the dollar Joey had stolen. Shandy goes out in a rainstorm to try and raise money to repay Tony for a window Joey has broken, and becomes gravely ill from the exposure and is on the brink of death.