Orphan Lois Walton is treated unkindly by her aunt, who has her placed in a reformatory. She and the other inmates are badly abused but are afraid to complain, and she remains silent after a riot is subdued. She arouses the sympathy of Peter Madison, a lawyer who conducts an investigation, and is paroled. Placed in a doctor's home, she is frightened by his advances and runs away. Refusing Madison's offer of refuge in his apartment, she becomes social secretary to Miss Dell, operator of a gambling house, who tries to force her into a marriage with wealthy young Leo Carstairs; but she is saved by Madison, who claims her as his own wife.