Fact1: Miller is frustrated by lack of progress of current assignment investigating smuggling of Chinese people into country by fisherman named Eli Kirk, Fact2: Kirk orders men to weigh down Not wanting to be caught with evidence of smuggling operation Chinaman and lower him to death, Fact3: Chinaman 's body was carried in with tide, Fact4: editor remains skeptical of Kirk 's guilt, Fact5: Julie After spending night in announces next morning Miller 's apartment
Output: San Diego Standard reporter H. Joseph Miller Ben Lyon has been covering the citys waterfront for the past five years and is fed up with the work. He longs to escape the waterfront life and land a newspaper job back East so he can marry his Vermont sweetheart. Miller is frustrated by the lack of progress of his current assignment investigating the smuggling of Chinese people into the country by a fisherman named Eli Kirk Ernest Torrence. One morning after wasting a night tracking down bad leads, his editor at the Standard orders him to investigate a report of a girl swimming naked at the beach. There he meets Julie Kirk Claudette Colbert, the daughter of the man hes been investigating. Meanwhile, Eli Kirk and his crew are returning to San Diego with a Chinese passenger when the Coast Guard approaches. Not wanting to be caught with evidence of his smuggling operation, Kirk orders his men to weigh down the Chinaman and lower him overboard to his death. The Coast Guard, accompanied by Miller, board the boat but find nothing. The next day, Miller discovers the Chinamans body which was carried in with the tide, and takes it as evidence to his editor, who still remains skeptical of Kirks guilt. To get conclusive evidence, Miller tells him he plans to romance Kirks daughter Julie in order to break the smuggling operation. When Kirk returns, he informs Julie that they will need to move on soon—maybe to Singapore—as soon as he can put together enough money for the voyage. One night, Julie discovers her father drunk at a boarding house. Miller, who was there investigating Kirk, helps Julie take her father home. Julie does not discourage Millers flirtations, and during the next few weeks they fall in love. She is able to help Miller see the beauty of the waterfront, and inspires him to improve the novel hes been working for the past five years. While visiting an old Spanish galleon on a date, he playfully restrains her in a torture rack and kisses her passionately—and she returns his passion. Julie and Miller spend a romantic evening together on the beach, where she reveals that she and her father will be sailing away in the next few days. After spending the night in Millers apartment, Julie announces the next morning that shes decided to stay, hoping that he will stay with her. When Miller learns from her that her father is due to dock at the Chinese settlement that night, he notifies the Coast Guard. At the dock, while the Coast Guard searches the vessel, Miller discovers a Chinaman hidden inside a large shark. When the Coast Guard attempt to arrest Kirk, he flees the scene but is wounded during his escape. The next morning, Millers breaking story is published on the Standards front page. When a wounded Kirk makes his way back home, Julie learns that it was Miller who helped the Coast Guard uncover her fathers smuggling operation of which she was unaware, and that she unknowingly revealed to him his landing location. Soon after, Miller, feeling guilty over the storys impact to Julies life, arrives at her home and apologizes for the hurt hes caused her, and announces that he loves her. Feeling used by his actions, an angry Julie sends him away. Later that night, Miller locates Kirk, who shoots him in the arm. Julie arrives to help her father escape, and seeing Miller wounded, she tells her father she cannot leave Miller to die. Seeing that she loves him, Kirk helps her take Miller to safety, after which Kirk dies. Later from his hospital bed, Miller acknowledges in his newspaper column that Kirk saved his life before he died. Sometime later, Miller returns to his apartment, where Julie is waiting to greet him. Noticing that she cleaned and transformed his place into a cozy home, he tells her he finally wrote the ending to his novel, He marries the girl. Julie acknowledges, Thats a swell finish, and the two embrace.