A Theatrical Company is facing bankruptcy while being stuck in a hostile town, miles from home, in a hotel where they are already well in arrears in payment of their bills. The whole plot revolves around the troupe having to work in order to compensate the Hotel owner.

Johnny McCloud, a tough police inspector given more to fisticuffs than investigating has the hots for torch-singer Lola Parker, but Miss Parker is much taken with a good-looking crook named George Perry. This does not bother McCloud, as he not only gets his man behind bars but takes the man's woman also.

Cautionary tale features a fictionalized and highly exaggerated take on the use of marijuana. A trio of drug dealers lead innocent teenagers to become addicted to "reefer" cigarettes by holding wild parties with jazz music.