It is the eve of one of the most newsworthy events of the year: convicted cop-killer Earl Williams is about to be hanged. Every newspaper has a reporter camped at the jail, providing snippets in the build-up but Walter Burns, Managing Editor of the Chicago Enquirer, has a problem: his star reporter, Hildy Johnson, has just quit to get married and take up an advertising job in Philadelphia. However, Burns will stop at nothing to keep Johnson at the Enquirer.—grantss