Al Stone, a singing waiter at Blackie Joe's cafe, writes a hit song and becomes a Broadway star, marrying Molly Winton, an ambitious, underhanded soubrette. Molly eventually leaves Al and goes off with John Perry, a racketeer, taking their young son with her. Al becomes a derelict and sometime later returns to Blackie Joe's, where Grace, the loyal cigarette girl, inspires him to make a comeback. Al's son dies in a hospital, and Al, going on stage like a trouper, sings the boy's favorite song. The pain caused by his son's death is dulled with the passage of time, and he goes to California with Grace.