Brothers James and Allen Mornington are both addicted to cocaine and both believe that their addiction is caused by a hereditary failing. James rises to the position of judge, but when Allen is brought into his court on drug charges, James resigns. The two brothers, along with James's daughter, Hilda, then retire to the country to fight their desire for drugs. Although James is under a doctor's care for his habit, Allen continues to supply his brother with cocaine. The doctor discovers this and in an argument is shot and killed by Allen. The murder snaps James's mind and Hilda, believing that her father is guilty, assumes the blame for the crime. She is convicted and sentenced to be hanged when the doctor's assistant, Franklin Shirley, comes to her aid. Shirley induces his friend, criminologist Mortimer Gildane, to take Hilda's case, and Gildane succeeds in extracting a confession from Allen. Acquitted of the crime, Hilda still fears falling heir to her family's predilection towards drugs, until Franklin dispels her apprehensions and she agrees to marry him.