This is not a romance but the biography of the man who now leads our vast forces in France. It shows him from boyhood to his present high command, and the story of his life tells why Pershing was selected to lead the American forces overseas and how he has his own personal account to settle with the ruthless Hun.
Roscoe begins work on his new job as janitor of the Shortacre Building in New York. While performing his duties he enters the offices of a broker, I. Steele. The broker is out, but his wife, who knows that her husband expects a rich customer in with a check for $10,000 to close an option, mistakes Roscoe for this Mr. R.U. Stout of Showme, Missouri. Thinking to be of assistance to her husband in his business, Mrs. Steele is very affable and finally invites the supposed Mr. Stout to go to luncheon with her. Steele returns with the necessary papers and is told by his office boy that his wife has gone to a gay café with the new janitor.
Sir Philip Randall, a prominent judge, is fed up with the antics of James, his scapegrace son, and tosses him out of the house. The conflict between father and son leaves Mrs. Randall heartbroken, and when she dies, she makes her husband swear to help James if he ever needs it. When Joe Merrion, a bookmaker, is found dead, circumstantial evidence points to Squire William Rufford. Although Randall can't believe he committed the crime, he is forced to convict him and sentence him to prison. But later, when James, whose wild ways have left him penniless, comes to his father for help, Randall discovers that he was the killer.
Ronald, heir to Lord Earle in Earlescourt, England, secretly loves Dora Thorne, a desirable but working-class woman. When Lord Earle hears of the relationship, he brings Valentine Charteris to the estate to distract his lovesick son. True to his love, however, Ronald refuses Valentine and marries Dora. After emigrating to Italy, Ronald earns a modest living as a painter, and Dora gives birth to twins. When Ronald receives a generous commission to paint a portrait, he asks Dora to pose for him, but overly preoccupied with the children, she refuses. Wounded by the rejection, Ronald calls on Valentine Charteris and quickly becomes infatuated with her, forcing Dora to return to Earlescourt with the twins.
Former newsboy and jockey Joe Braxton, becomes a millionaire rancher and decides to visit New York. He soon becomes the prey of swindler Tom Linson and socialite Viola Grayson. Linson defrauds Braxton's old employer, Colonel Downs, and attempts to corrupt Eleanor, the colonel's daughter. When Eleanor learns that Linson intends to destroy Joe on the stock exchange, she warns him, disregarding Linson's threat to ruin her reputation. Eleanor is too late, but Joe recovers his losses by riding Mongrel to victory in the Kentucky Futurity, after having stacked his last dollar on the horse's success.
An innocent man, serving a sentence of five years in prison through the perjured testimony of the real criminal, Steve Carson, foreman of a shipyard, strikes up a warm friendship with his cellmate, Harold Norwood, a defaulting paying teller. No less strange than their friendship is the befriending of Steve's wife, Annie, by Julia Seymour, prima donna, who is Norwood's wife. As a reward of good behavior, the men are released on Christmas morning. Annie is bewildered by the receipt of a bank book which shows that large deposits of gold have been made in her name and that of her sister, Mary, by their uncle, George Hosford, who, dying in Alaska, has entrusted the book to Joe Hawes, a fellow prospector.