Jack Temple starts from a small town to find a fortune in a big store in New York. He is steady and industrious, but yields to the superior cunning of the dishonest idler, who shoots dice and spends evenings in the billiard halls. Young Temple starts to send his mother part of his weekly earnings, but soon gives it up and when he loses his position stops writing altogether. He drifts down from bad to worse as an idler lost in a great city. His poor mother comes to the city, tortured with the agony of apprehension, and visits his employers. Fortunately, at this time young Temple daringly rescues a young woman from drowning, and becomes a hero overnight through the medium of the newspaper. He has learned his lesson and returns to his mother a credit and is later restored to the confidence of his employers.