Gordon West, a young lawyer, in love with Anna Stevens, is suddenly called out of town. Anna learns that she is about to become a mother and begs Gordon to marry her before he goes, but because of her not making the situation sufficiently clear, he puts it off until his return. He stays longer than expected, and goaded on by the cynical word of her relatives: \"Young lawyers with a career don't marry poor girls.\" she disappears. Her baby is born and she leaves it in a hamper with an explanatory note, on West's doorstep. Unfortunately, Jim Wells, a crook, steals the hamper, and Maggie, his wife, persuades him to keep the child. Maggie finds the note giving the child's name as Nell, and keeps it. Gordon West meanwhile returns, and puts detectives on the track of Anna, but without avail. Many years later, Gordon is now district attorney and hot after the gang of which Wells is the head. Nell has been forced to aid the crooks in small thefts, and Reeves, a secret service man, purporting to be an insurance collector, becomes interested in her. Wells learns who Reeves really is and kills him. Nell is found on the scene with a revolver in her hand and arrested on a murder charge. Gordon West is to prosecute the case. Then he learns that Nell is his own daughter, and tells her so. Free at last to confess, Nell tells her story. It clears up everything and reunites father and daughter.
