Marjorie North, a department store clerk, falls in love and has an affair with the store owner's son, Gordon Trenwith, but realizes when her baby is born without a name that he meant only to use her as a plaything. Having turned down John Hayward, a struggling young lawyer, in the hope that Gordon would marry her, Marjorie finds herself alone until Claire Morgan and her new husband, Jerry Thompson, take her in. After several years, during which Marjorie's child is killed, John, now a successful attorney, discovers her whereabouts and, imagining that she originally rejected him because he was poor, again asks for her hand. Ashamed of her past, she refuses him with no explanation, but when she learns that Gordon plans to marry John's sister, she finally confesses everything in order to save the girl. In the subsequent fight between Gordon and John, the villain is killed, but at the trial Gordon's secretary confesses that he killed his employer to settle a score of his own concerning his wife's honor. John forgives Mary and they finally marry.—AFI