Dinty is a newsboy whose fight to care for his ailing mother leads him into conflicts with the other boys on the street and then with drug smugglers in Chinatown.

"When the door opened" Clive Grenfel sees his wife in another man's arms. A tussle ensues leading Clive to believe he has killed the other man, and he flees to the Northwoods. There he becomes acquainted with an old gentleman and his lovely granddaughter but keeps his distance because of his past. A stranger’s arrival proves a catalyst to the whole fraught situation.