Flo is a child whom circumstances have dealt with hard. Her mother, years before, had deserted her wealthy husband for a profligate, and we find her in filth and poverty, with a husband who ill treats her. John, the husband, had loved his wife Jane, but he failed to show her the small attentions which one of her nature required. Fox, the dissolute, demands money of Jane. She refuses him, hoping to keep enough by her to feed the girl, Flo. Events contrive to make the man furious with the woman; he kills her and escapes. Flo goes to live with the family upstairs. Here she comes in contact with old Marcus, the Fagin, who schools her in the art of picking pockets. In the park she picks the pocketbook of John's sister. John, unaware that she is the daughter of his unfaithful wife, saves her from the clutches of the law and gives her work in his sister's dressmaking shop. With new surroundings she becomes happy and contented. Charity flowing strong in his heart, John gives the woman-child a little flat. When Flo is commencing to appreciate the higher and cleaner life, her father appears to threaten her welfare. He finds her out and discloses to John the girl's identity. John is drawn between conflicting emotions on learning that Flo is the daughter of his dead wife. At first he is furious and drives the girl out. But his sister, with the true heart of a woman, stimulates his better nature and he takes the child back, convinced, after all, that he is under obligation to Flo, though she is not his child.