Jim Miller lives in a cheap tenement with his wife and his sister. They had been in a better position in other days, but Jim has developed into a morose half-drunken character, suspicious and high-tempered. The sister leaves her own husband and comes to live with Jim. However, she is jealous of her sister-in-law and goes out of her way to be mean to her, and to poison Jim's mind against the weak, pretty thing who is his wife. One day Jim gets out of a job and while he is out looking for work and the sister is away at her work in the factory, Mary, the wife, steals out determined to add to the common share, while her husband is in hard luck. She finds work painting clay figures, an art for which she shows some talent. But she is afraid of Jim's wildness and as soon as she collects money she secrets it for a rainy day. One day after she has worked hard and hoarded some money, the sister comes in unexpectedly upon her, and when Mary goes out of the room finds the money in an old vase. They watch Mary go out after that and Jim's sister poisons him against his wife and at the same time shows the accumulation of money. Mary is suspicious of being watched and so to keep them from learning about the money she paints at home and has a young man from the factory call for the work. The young man, Willard Meeks, does this because he is attracted to the pretty woman. However, he is a rough sort of fellow and one day he catches her and tries to kiss her. She fights him off and he says if she does not kiss him he will make her lose her position. She is a weak-minded woman, and with starvation staring them in the face, she braves herself to endure his embrace. As it happens at that moment, the sister has been watching and although she knows the true state of affairs, she runs into another room and gets Jim to look just at the moment of the embrace. Jim tries to rush in to kill her. The sister suddenly divining his state of mind begins to confess and at last does hold him off until Mary repulses the boy, denounces him and shows the true state of affairs to her husband. The sister is repentant and the husband begs forgiveness.