John Douglas divorces his wife, taking custody of their son Kenneth and leaving her with their little daughter Kathleen. Mrs. Douglas dies in poverty, and Kathleen falls in with crook Jack Baggot and his wife, who teach her how to pick pockets.

Robert Strickland, the self-confessed murderer of Gerald Trask, refuses to defend himself on the witness stand. His attorney, however, cross-examines Strickland's wife.

Little Joyce Fairfax loves her thoroughbred colt “Satan.” When financial difficulties force her young, widowed mother to sell her estranged grandfather, Judge Boyce, who had disapproved of her mother’s choice of husband, buys him secretly. When the judge also suffers reverses, he enters Satan in the Dixie Stakes where the unscrupulous Silas Morgan tries trickery to prevent the colt from running. He almost succeeds until a mysterious rider comes to the barrier, and rides Satan to victory. When Mrs. Fairfax hastens to the paddock, she finds Joyce very muddy and soiled in her jockey colors, just then Judge Boyce arrives, and the trio are reunited.

A physician advises Helen Blair to seek a different climate. She is without money. Philip Cobb, her daughter's sweetheart, tells them his employer, Richard Standing, has refused him an increase. Thus Mrs. Blair discovers the whereabouts of Standing, whom she rejected years before to marry Blair. Standing treats her savagely when she appeals to him. His son, John, overhears the conversation and, seeing the girl, forces them to take the necessary funds to save the mother. The father discovers his love affair and sends him to Honolulu. The jealous Cobb gets a letter from a friend there and forges a new note telling that young Standing has become a drunkard. Ailene and Cobb are married. John Standing returns after months and he and Ailene learn of the deception. Cobb repents his deceit and drowns himself.