Nora Clegg, an actress, marries Carl Brent, an unemployed young engineer, whose estimation of his worth and ability keeps him from getting a job. He finally acquires a position that will require him to go to Russia for a period of time, while Nora goes back to the stage during his absence. But he loses out on the job at the last minute, and rather than tell Nora he has failed again, he steals a roll of money from his prospective employer to buy some things for Nora and go out and have a good time before, she things, his departure. His departure is to jail rather than Russia and he hides the truth from Nora by having an acquaintance mail his letters from Russia. He then finds out that Nora is pregnant.

A love triangle forms the basis of this drama. It all begins in a steel mill when a steel worker ignores the besotted gazes of his landlady at the boarding house and falls in love with a gold-digger. His best friend also finds himself smitten by the seductive young woman. But when the one of the workers fritters away a collection that had been taken up for the wife of a deceased co-worker on a foolish bet, he and the vamp take off until the good-hearted landlady intervenes and convinces them to stay and take their lumps.