Annie Ann Gillis an orphan based on Harold Grays comic strip but who is at no point in the film called Little Orphan Annie is befriended by a fight manager Pop Corrigan J Farrell MacDonald She brings him Johnny Adams Robert Kent a promising prizefighter Annie gets the people of the neighborhood to finance his training But on the night of Johnnys big fight a gambling syndicate locks him in a gymnasium and it appears the neighborhood folks will lose their investment