John Stedman, a promising young surgeon, returns home from a business trip to find his wife Lucia in another man's apartment. Shocked and depressed, John abandons his practice and becomes a derelict, earning his living as a handyman in a cheap boardinghouse. Under the name of Martin West, he meets Dorothy Harmon, who, unknown to him, is living in the slums to fulfill the terms of a $10,000 wager that she can survive for a month without money. They fall in love, and when Dorothy wins her bet, she secretly gives him the money, which John, now eager to impress the young woman, uses to re-establish his practice. Once again known as Dr. Stedman, John returns to the slums but finds that Dorothy has disappeared. Shortly afterwards, the doctor, now sporting a beard, treats Dorothy's ailing aunt, but Dorothy fails to recognize him. When she visits the old boardinghouse, John follows her and reveals himself as her missing sweetheart, with the result that they are finally married.