Randall and Ruth Foster were little tots. The two children lived side by side on one of the fashionable streets in New York City. One day Helen and her parents were starting for the park when the little one suggested that they invite Ruth to go with them. The idea pleased them all, and as for Ruth, she was in an ecstasy of delight. She skipped down the steps into the Randall's automobile, and her father (a widower), watches as the machine whizzed off, realized more than ever the little treasure he possessed. At the park the two children got into a boat unobserved by their elders and drifted into the lake. In total ignorance of their peril they frolicked about the flimsy craft until it suddenly capsized and two little figures were hanging to the gunwale. Randall swam out to the boat. Even his love for his child made him hesitate to take her to the shore first until the little Ruth assured him she was safe, that she would stay on the boat until he returned. But when he returned, and with him her frightened father, the little form that they brought to land was still, the child bad slipped from the boat and drowned while he brought his own child to safety. The loss of his little girl made Foster almost frantic, and he became as vindictive an enemy to Randall as he had been a friend. A power in Wall Street, step by step he smashed the latter back in the merciless warfare of the street, until Randall, innocent of wrong though he was, stood on the brink of ruin. But when all hope was gone, when he had brought himself to looking upon a life of poverty with the resignation born of necessity, his daughter took the matter into her own hands and John Foster, wealthy financier and lonely man, learned the lesson of forgiveness.