After several years' absence, the young sailor Dan O'Neill returns to his hometown. He quickly discovers that his mother has been cheated out of her life savings by slick oil speculator Jasper Thorne and is now working as a charwoman. Dan tries to avenge his mother's loss by swindling the swindler.
Drusilla Doane is a charity inmate at an old-ladies' home who inherits a million dollars. Someone leaves a baby on the porch. And someone else leaves another, and soon Drusilla, who always wanted a child of her, in now in charge of a large brood of children, and very happy about it. But there may be a problem; the real heir to the money shows up.
Lafayette Jordan (Davis), financier, plans to inundate Caribou Canyon and turn it into a reservoir, but the villagers will not sell him their land. Among the resentful villagers is Judson Forrest (Harlan), who wants to be an inventor. Mary Jordan (Bellamy), daughter of the financier, is hurt and spends a night at his home. Learning of his attitude toward her father, she poses as a domestic at the Jordan home. Later, in New York, Judson looks her up. He is trying to sell his invention and, to get funds, he mortgages his home. The village banker, in league with Jordan, sells the financier the mortgage, and a foreclosure threatens when Jordan's business agent Henry Mogridge (Miljan) double-crosses Judson. The youth thinks Mary working against him. Friends come to Judson's aid and he pays off the mortgage in the nick of time. He learns that Jordan knew nothing of the methods employed by his agent and that Mary loves him.
