Just returned from college, wealthy Reggie Van Deuzen finds himself bored by socialite Lemona Reighley and society life in general, and while out driving with his faithful servant, affectionately named "Old Pickleface," he comes upon a lost child and returns her to her tenement-dwelling immigrant mother. While there, he sees Agnes and her frail mother, who is seeing Agnes off to work. After Agnes leaves, the immigrant mother tells Reggie that Agnes works as a dancer at Gallagher's saloon, but that she's "a good girl" who needs the job to support herself and her mother. Intrigued by the angelic young lady, Reggie dons workingman's clothes, rents a room near Gallagher's, and drags Old Pickleface into the dancehall to check it out. After hanging around and introducing himself to Agnes, he witnesses her being intimidated by Sammy the Dude, a henchman of Gashouse Gang leader Tony, and handily whips Sammy in the street outside. Gallagher, the saloon owner, immediately hires Reggie to replace the bouncer, who has just been beaten up by the gang. When Sammy reports back to his boss, Tony gives another gang member a "gat" and tells him to "bump off" Reggie. Meanwhile, Reggie escorts Agnes home and is invited up to meet her mother, who apologizes for their present circumstances, adding that they used to have "a good home." That night, Reggie bluffs his way around in the saloon, and when Gallagher tries to make a play for Agnes in his private office, Reggie sets him straight, and the older man, realizing that Agnes is a good girl, apologizes for his own behavior and shakes Reggie's hand. When Reggie takes Agnes home after work, three thugs ambush him in and outside the tenement, but he beats them up, carries the unconscious gunman back to the gang's clubhouse, and throws him through the window. Finally, Tony challenges Reggie to a hand-to-hand fist fight with Agnes as the prize. Reggie emerges victorious, and when Tony's thugs threaten to kill him, Gallagher turns out the lights and the police arrive just in time. During his short stay at the hospital, Reggie concocts a scheme with his Aunt Susan to introduce Agnes to upper-class society so that he can test her sincerity. After she proves true to him, Reggie reveals his true identity and the two reaffirm their declarations of love.