Netta, a poor girl who does not know her parentage, dances in Gafferty's, a rough Bowery music hall, where her sweetheart Bob works as a waiter. Meanwhile, Judge Gregory, known for his sternness in court, invites his more lenient colleague to a trial in which he levies the harshest sentence possible. Afterwards, in a park, they encounter Netta and Bob. The lenient judge remembers that he recently gave Bob a suspended sentence for street fighting. Later, at Gafferty's dive, Graves, a rowdy customer with an eye for Netta, follows her to her room and attacks her. When Bob comes to her rescue, Graves turns on him, and the girl shoots him. They both escape, but a policeman shoots Netta in her leg during a chase and arrests her. Judge Gregory presides over her trial. While waiting for the jury's verdict, the girl's attorney, finding a locket in her room with a photograph inside, tracks down her grandfather in the country and learns that his daughter, Netta's mother, a simple country girl, was deflowered and deserted by a city lawyer visiting in the locality. The attorney then confronts the judge with the photograph in the locket and reveals that he is the girl's father. The judge, shocked, adjourns and, in his chambers, suffers a mild heart attack. The next day, the lenient judge takes over the case and sets both Netta and Bob free. The two then visit the convalescent judge, who now expresses a desire to devote his life to his daughter. She and Bob then return to her grandfather's home in the country.