AllMovie

When her husband Pete (Frank Evans) is shot over a craps game, Molly McGill (Pauline Frederick) goes to work as a scrubwoman to support her two children. The girl is killed by an automobile, and the boy, Jimmy (Jospeh Carroll), shows all the sterling qualities of his shiftless gambler of a father. So when a well-to-do broker makes her an offer, Molly reluctantly becomes his mistress so she can send Jimmy to school. Jimmy grows up (to be played by Pat O'Mally) and becomes a fireman. Molly, meanwhile, leaves the broker and drops out of sight. Eventually she finds work as a scrubwoman again, but her son has no idea of her whereabouts. She discovers that Dora (Violet Palmer), a stenographer at the building where she works, is engaged to Jimmy. She is also working for the lecherous broker with whom Molly had been involved. One night, when the broker attacks Dora, Molly stabs him with a knife. A fire breaks out in the building and Jimmy saves Dora from the flames. Molly dies without ever revealing her identity to her son, but she is glad that her son has found happiness. The tone to this melodrama was far earthier than Pauline Frederick's usual vehicles.