After P. C. Gordon is murdered and robbed of a diamond ring that he bought as a birthday present for his wife, one of the thieves, C. Dates, is apprehended. A woman prosecuting attorney makes a compelling case against him, and he is given a ten-year penitentiary sentence. Dates escapes and heads for the vacant lot where he buried the ring. Meanwhile, a boy playing in the lot digs up the ring and gives it to his older brother, Guy Braxton, a prosperous dry goods merchant. Guy shows it to William Jackson, an unscrupulous lawyer. When Pauline Keith, Jackson's young stenographer, learns of Jackson's scheme to steal the diamond, which also involves her own father and a woman named Flora Fulton, she begins to investigate. After Jackson finds that several incriminating documents are missing, he fires Pauline. She immediately goes to work for Guy and prevents the theft of the diamond. Jackson is later elected district attorney and orders the arrest of Guy, but Pauline obtains evidence of Guy's innocence and saves him from a long prison term. After a $2,000 reward is issued for Dates, he turns himself in and is pardoned.