Philip Hardin, a dissipated, good-natured son of a millionaire, and John Ballard, working his way through college, form a friendship. Young Hardin, because of his dissolute habits, gets behind in his studies and Ballard acts as a special tutor. In one of his many lapses from study, Hardin becomes embroiled in a fight which occurs in a gambling den and is rescued by Ballard, who happens to be passing. During the fight Ballard floors one of the gamblers, "Red" Curley, who tried to shoot Hardin. A newspaper report of Curley's death frightens the two students and they agree to keep their part in the fight secret. At the end of their college course, Hardin's father places him in the shops of the X.Y.&V.C.R.R., of which he is vice-president, but his bad habits still cling and he is discharged by the foreman. His father gives him another chance, promising a home and a comfortable allowance if he will marry and settle down, intimating that Viola Ruskin, the daughter of a personal friend, would be acceptable as a daughter-in-law. John Ballard, on leaving college, studies law and soon becomes one of the rising young men of the day. He meets and falls in love with Viola, and although his love is returned, Mrs. Ruskin compels her daughter, because of financial reasons, to accept the attentions of Hardin. The sudden death of Hardin's father influences Mrs. Ruskin to hurry the marriage. A year after a daughter comes to them and the little girl's advent changes Hardin into a man of action. Through his money and influence he works his way up to the presidency of the N.Y.&V.C.R.R. John Ballard also becomes a power by his election to the office of District Attorney. There have been numerous fatal wrecks on Hardin's road, and yielding to the insistent demands for an investigation. Ballard calls on his old college chum and tries to persuade him to do something for its betterment. Unable to move the railroad president, Ballard threatens legal proceedings and the officers of the road are brought to court. The night before the trial, Hardin remembers the college episode and threatens Ballard with exposure as a murderer unless he stops the prosecution. The District Attorney yields to the threat, and the trial is taken off the calendar. On his return from court, Hardin receives a letter from one of his former gambling friends, who had been a witness of the fight, stating that "Red" Curley had been killed in a later fracas. Hardin refuses to do anything about the letter, but his wife, still admiring Ballard, takes the letter and. rushing to the home of the District Attorney, arrives just in time to prevent a tragic scene. Later, Ballard, determined to get proof of the conditions, sends one of his clerks to get a position on the railroad so as to make a personal investigation. Hardin, wishing some proxies, which are in a safe at his country home, phones his wife to get them. The auto in which she is hurrying to her husband, breaks down and she is compelled to flag the express, wiring her husband of the fact. In the meantime Ballard's clerk has discovered rotten ties and loose rails on a bridge and wires Hardin of its condition. The telegram from his wife and the one telling of the dangerous bridge reach Hardin about the same time. Realizing the oncoming express on which his wife is riding must cross the weakened bridge, he hurries by automobile and motorboat to try and head off the train. Coming in view of the bridge as the flyer hits the rotten ties, he sees the train crash through into the waters of the river below. The sight was too much for his over-wrought nerves, and he falls over dead. Viola, unconscious is taken from the wreck by John Ballard, who happened to be near the scene of the accident, and while carrying her to a farmhouse comes upon the body. Laying her on the arm of the man who was her husband, he watches her as she succumbs to the shock brought on by the juggernaut of fate.