Orphaned waif Judy, lives with Grandpap Ketchel, a cruel and often brutal man. The sole protector of little Denny, Ketchel's grandson, Judy is forced to accept the attentions of Jim Shuckles, whom she abhors and who has compromised her sister Olive. When Shuckles beats Denny, Judy hides him with the Lady of the Roses, a kind neighbor, and Shuckles, fearing that he has killed the boy, allows Judy to go unmolested. After Shuckles is elected by the Citizens, a vigilante group, to kill Governor Kingsland, Judy discovers the plot and, with the help of Teddy, the governor's son, saves his life. Seeking refuge, Judy takes the governor to her kind neighbor's house, where he confesses that the Lady of the Roses is actually Ketchel's daughter, Judy's mother, and the wife of a friend whose fortune he had stolen years before. Her family is united, Judy and Teddy marry.