Clean-living pugilist Jim Fortune assists Angelica Hart when her husband Duncan assaults her in a Bowery café. Soon after, Jim fights a bout with Hart, an amateur society boxer, during a dinner party. Enraged by the sight of whip marks on Angelica's neck, Jim knocks Hart out soundly. In revenge, that night Hart attacks Angelica. When she pulls out a gun, "Toad" Jennings, Hart's former trainer and a drug addict, and Mrs. Dale, a widow with whom Hart had been having a romance, struggle with her before she can pull the trigger. The gun goes off and Hart is killed. Hart's father, Hagan, vows vengeance on Angelica and Jim. After their arrest, Hagan realizes that Jim is really his son by his first wife, who left him because of his brutality. In the end, Toad confesses to killing Hart because of a grievance, and Jim and Angelica realize that they are in love.