Small-town girl Mary Barry wins a beauty contest and goes to New York to meet D. V. Cortelyou, the magazine’s publisher. Greatly taken by young girl, Cortelyou arranges for her to live with Dolly Griffith, a woman of questionable reputation who often aids him in his wicked schemes of blackmail and seduction. During a party, seemingly in Mary’s honor, Cortelyou obtains some apparently, compromising evidence with which to blackmail Mrs. Young, the wife of a wealthy broker; Cortelyou then makes rough advances toward Mary, and one of his assistants, Jack McGuire, gives him a good beating. Threatened with blackmail, Mrs. Young turns in desperation to Jack for help. Jack and Mary attempt to trap Cortelyou in a net of his own making, but the blackmailer is too smart, outwitting Jack and abducting Mary. Cortelyou also kidnaps Mrs. Young, keeping her and Mary in a deserted house. Jack learns of their whereabouts and arrives with the police. Cortelyou is arrested, Mrs. Young is saved from the consequences of scandal, and Jack proposes to Mary.