Columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) has just been made redundant by her newspaper. She has one more column to write and in a fit of pique her final column is a fake letter from a John Doe, saying that, due to the state of society, he intends committing suicide on Christmas Eve. The column sparks an immediate backlash, with local politicians claiming it is a hoax letter aimed at them. With the publicity, Ms Mitchell sees an opportunity and convinces the newspaper to take her back, turning the John Doe story into a series of articles. To convince the public that John Doe is real, she finds a down-and-out drifter (Gary Cooper) to play him. The owner of the newspaper, media tycoon DB Norton (Edward Arnold), gets behind the idea, resulting in John Doe becoming a household name and starting a social revolution.—grantss