Young Englishman Frank Burdon (Sir Rex Harrison) has just arrived in the western Scottish town of Baikie, where he has been hired as a reporter for the Baikie Advertiser by its owner, Horace Skirving (Gus McNaughton), who never prints anything scandalous. Upon his arrival in town, Frank falls in love at first sight with a young woman who he will eventually learn is Victoria Gow (Vivien Leigh), just arrived home after a stint in Paris at school, and the daughter of Baikie's well respected Provost, William Gow (Cecil Parker). Victoria learns on her arrival home that her father is going-on with Horace's wife, Lisbet Skirving (Ursula Jeans), who ultimately wants to be seen as the woman behind the powerful political man. The Provost is to be Frank's first interview as he is running for a new party's nomination for Scottish Parliament under a "Scotland for the Scottish" platform. The resulting article is merely to be a vanity piece, a recount of the Provost's principled beliefs. However, without Horace's knowledge, Frank's printed article, which he knows will cost him his job, is critical of the Provost for his hard nosed handling of the case of poor Honoria Hegarty (Sara Allgood), the town's ice cream cart vendor whose beloved mongrel, Patsy (Scruffy), was confiscated for failure to pay the five pounds sterling fine for non-payment of dog license fees, with Patsy scheduled to be put down because of it. Mrs. Hegarty could ill afford either the license fees or the fine. Frank wrote the story not because he has a dislike for the Provost, but merely to point out an injustice, which goes against for what the Provost stands. The story ends up causing a national sensation, with certain people trying to exploit the situation for their own benefit. Caught in the middle is Victoria who wants to stand by her father, but who is falling for Frank whose principles as written in the piece with which she agrees.—Huggo