Distinguished musician William Marshall has a daughter, Doris, and a ward, Viola Sherwin. Franklyn White, who is engaged to Doris, becomes smitten with Viola, but she is not interested and leaves for Philadelphia, where she becomes a reporter and meets wayward Harold Foster, who falls in love with her and proposes a secret marriage. Later, Harold attends a ball in New York, given by his mother; disregarding his marriage, he falls in love with Doris, to whom he becomes engaged. To save Doris, Viola confronts Harold at the Barrett home, and it appears that she has shot and killed him. However, Peter Barrett confesses to the crime, committed in the jealous belief that Viola was his wife Lauretta, whom Harold had previously courted. Viola is free and Doris and Franklyn are reconciled.