Mrs. Ramsey sent Jean Oliver to prison on a false charge. To get even, Jean (disguised as Madame Mystera) plans to kidnap her daughter and turn her into a thief. Love entanglements with a gangster known as "The Fox" and newspaperman Grant complicate her plans.

Geoffrey is desperately in love with Mavis, who lives at his boardinghouse and is also pursuing a writing career. Unable to marry her because of his poverty, in his anger he curses God for abandoning him. Soon Geoffrey meets Prince Lucio de Rimanez, a wealthy, urbane gentleman who informs Geoffrey that he has inherited a fortune, but that he must place himself in the Prince's hands in order to enjoy the fruits of his inheritance. What Geoffrey doesn't know is that Prince Lucio is actually Satan.

Philanthropical druggist Daniel Abbott, occasionally robs the rich to take care of the poor, goes to court with his young ward, Jimmy Nolan. In the courtroom Daniel meets Mrs. Warren, who, despondent over her inability to care for a newborn baby, has been charged with attempted suicide. Daniel takes mother and daughter under his wing, watching with pride as the girl, Helen, and his ward, Jimmy, grow to a tender adolescence. Sylvester Doane, a tenement owner, falls in love with Helen, and Daniel makes plans to rob him. Jimmy learns with shock of the plans and goes to Doane's apartment to prevent the robbery. Jimmy takes the gems to forestall his father, but he is found with them in his possession and put in jail.

Small-town girl Mary Barry wins a beauty contest and goes to New York to meet D. V. Cortelyou, the magazine's publisher. Greatly taken by young girl, Cortelyou arranges for her to live with Dolly Griffith, a woman of questionable reputation who often aids him in his wicked schemes of blackmail and seduction. During a party seemingly in Mary's honor, Cortelyou obtains some apparently compromising evidence with which to blackmail Mrs. Young, the wife of a wealthy broker; Cortelyou then makes rough advances toward Mary, and one of his assistants, Jack McGuire, gives him a good beating.