Ruth Carroll, a schoolteacher in New York's Lower East Side, meets Bolshevist Alexis Minski at her grandfather's bookstore. After Ruth complains to her superintendent about undernourished schoolchildren, Minski's ravings cause her suspension, and she joins the Reds. Meanwhile, Captain Nathan Levison, returning from the Argonne, is assigned by the Secret Service to investigate New York's radicals. While visiting the Carrolls to announce the imminent arrival of Ruth's brother Davy, who saved Levison's life but lost his foot, Levison falls in love with Ruth. Chagrined, Minski convinces Ruth that Levison plans to arrest her and her grandfather, whereupon Ruth furiously requests that Levison be killed. After Governor Alfred E. Smith signs a bill making it illegal to display the Red flag, the Bolshevists plot to assassinate him, the Mayor of Seattle, and Attorney General Alexander Palmer, but Davy, with other soldiers, break up the meeting.

Neglected by her grief-stricken father, a doctor, after the tragic death of his wife, little Eileen Homer changes the wording of her father's ad for a governess to read: "Wanted, a mother." After much melodrama that’s just what she gets.

Rose Hale, a country girl, rescues Ralph Van Court after he becomes lost while hunting in the Adirondacks. Ralph had recently been spurned by his former love, Viola Shepard, who chose to marry his wealthy uncle for money. Rose and Ralph marry, but she soon finds herself neglected by her city-dwelling husband once the honeymoon phase ends.