Poor girl from a dirty and gritty tenement building in the United States, Katherine Allenbourg, is abandoned by her entire family. She has to trade on her looks in order to drag herself out of the slums. A local beauty contest seems like her best chance. Katherine charms the elderly gentleman, Sam Lewis, who is running the beauty contest. She convinces Sam that he should "fix it" so she will win first prize which is $1,000 and a trip to Europe. Once Katherine wins the beauty contest, she promptly drops the unsuspecting Sam. She uses him and moves on to her next victim.