The only sunshine that penetrates a basement is five feet of cheerfulness, the Shine Girl. While shining shoes with her little hands she polishes the grouchy and brooding souls with her cheerful word and happy smile. Then comes the day when a cloud temporarily eclipses her sunniness. Her heart torn by the poverty of a sick neighbor, she steals a loaf of bread and is taken to the Children's Court. A rising young judge sits upon her heavy offense, but his square jaw is softened by a pair of kindly eyes, and he not only parsons but develops deep interest in her. He takes her to his mother's home in the country where she can have some real sunshine and eventually the little orphan is adopted. While home the judge meets again the sweetheart he has never forgotten, now unhappily married. The old love is revived, and forgetting the justice he practices, he plans for flee west with her. The Shire Girl discovering the intentions of her hero who is about to totter from his pedestal at the risk of losing her sunny paradise of a home, bravely sets out to stop them. She heads off a message to the woman, and going to the station herself, reminds him gently of the words that went with her pardon, "It isn't square to steal what belong to someone else," and asks him, "Is it square to steal another man's wife?" Saved by her at the brink of a great unhappiness, he returns to the city and tries to forget. With next apple blossom time he returns to find his Shine Girl budding into womanhood and with the passing days love awakens within the hearts of both and before he returns again the Shine Girl promises to be his for "keeps."