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David Aldrich (Robert Warwick) and Phillip Morton (Vernon Steele) forge a tight friendship at Harvard that continues after graduation. David becomes a struggling author, while Phillip becomes a minister in New York's Lower East Side. But while in college, Phillip had a mistress, Lillian Drew (Christine Mayo), and now she is blackmailing him. Her demands are so steep that he winds up stealing money from the Boy's Fund to keep up with her. He plans to reimburse the funds with the profits from a stock sale, but the bottom falls out of the market, rendering the certificates worthless. He dies from the shock, and David tries to cover up the theft. As a result, he is accused of the crime, and to protect his dead friend's honor, he allows himself to be convicted. After spending four years in Sing Sing, his writing acquires a gritty style that wins approval with the publishers who formerly rejected him. Meanwhile, a little crook who befriended him (Jessie Lewis) helps him reunite with his fiancée, Helen Chambers (Anna Q. Nilsson).