McGee becomes a fireman over the protests of his mother, who doesn't want to see her son sacrifice his life the way his father did. When she dies, McGee adopts little Elizabeth Stevens, who takes care of him instead of vice versa. Along the way he meets Agnes Evans, a chorus girl, and falls in love.
Bill is a gambler, whose friend Scipio goes in search of his wife Jessie. Jessie, fed up with her life of poverty, has run off with the wealthy and villainous James. She has left behind her two children on James' promise that she can send for them later. Scipio leaves the tots with Bill when he goes on his search..
When taken to a San Francisco cafe by her sweetheart Jimmy, Georgia Rodman witnesses the shooting of a policeman by an underworld gang. The owner, O'Rourke, whom Jimmy believes to be his friend, sends one of his men to their table to inquire about Georgia, and after he shoots the policeman, Georgia and Jimmy are held for questioning. As a result, Georgia is turned out of her home, and O'Rourke gives the couple a room in his hotel. Assistant District Attorney Steven Graham links the missing couple with O'Rourke's activities and collects evidence against him. O'Rourke plans to bribe Graham and have Jimmy shot on the night of his annual ball, and Sally, O'Rourke's ex-mistress, learning of the plan, turns against him and informs Georgia; finding Jimmy wounded, Georgia seeks revenge at the ball, but Sally shoots O'Rourke. Georgia is reunited with her family and Jimmy, while Graham finds happiness with her sister Mary. It is considered to be a lost film.
Prudence's ( Olive Thomas ) parents send her from their Pennsylvania Quaker colony to a fashionable girls seminary, hoping she can learn about the devil's tricks, instead she engages in girlish pranks, but uses her pure appearance to escape blame. Later, Prudence visits her New York aunt, a society matron, and soon attracts an array of male admirers. She falls in love with wealthy Grayson Mills, but John Melbourne, who lives off of his wife's wealth, plots to seduce her. After Melbourne loans Prudence $200 to pay a gambling debt, he forces her to go to a roadhouse by threatening to show her stern father her canceled check. At dinner, Prudence produces a love letter which Melbourne had earlier written to an actress, and says that if she is not back by midnight, her hotel clerk will show Melbourne's wife his nineteen other love letters. After Melbourne hurries her back, he discovers that she only had the one letter. Prudence now becomes engaged to Grayson.
Traffic cop Larry Hayes takes care of four-year-old Mary Jane, the daughter of Gus Andrews, a criminal sent to prison because of Larry, and Nellie, a shop girl who visits often.
Working as a manicurist at the Ritz, Helen Thurston, is in love with her wealthy patron, Jack Standring, but the young man's mother wants him to marry a rich debutante. Helen is informed that she has inherited her grandfather's millions, and she proceeds as quickly as possible to acquire expensive clothing and jewelry on credit. Jack, however, is not impressed. Soon Helen learns that she has inherited only $1,000, the remainder of the fortune having gone to her cousin Spindrift. The creditors hound her for their money, and at a grand ball at the Standring home, a detective threatens to arrest her. Touched by her poverty, Jack decides to elope with her. Finally Spindrift violates the conditions of the will, and Helen inherits the entire fortune.
Discovering that her father, Peter Marshall, had been defrauded by a business partner named James Bartlett, Betty goes to Los Angeles to visit her aunt, Mrs. Hamilton Haines, whose late husband had a hand in ruining Peter. Tom, Bartlett's son, has arranged a yachting trip for Mrs. Haines and her daughter Ida, and Ida, deciding that her cousin is too pretty to come along, persuades Betty to stay behind. Tom, on the way to the yacht after a quarrel with his father, passes the Haines mansion and, noticing a sign advertising room and board, stops. Meeting Betty who is posing as Miss Haines, Tom moves in and falls in love with his landlady. When Betty accidentally meets Tom's father, the old man is so captivated that he offers her $5,000 to marry his son. After Tom and Betty are married, when both fathers discover their in-laws' true identities they are first indignant but later are reconciled.