As described in a film magazine, Polly Shannon (Gish) impresses Judge Monroe (Peil) with her "pep" and is recommended for employment to Mrs. Kingsley Benedict (Toncray), member of a committee investigating the Melville reform school for girls. Polly goes along, meets an old friend who is now an inmate, and learns that the conditions are deplorable and that the committee is being deceived. She and Judge Monroe plan for her to commit a theft so that she can be sentenced to Melville to aid in the investigation. Matters are complicated after she becomes an inmate and the judge dies, and she becomes the victim of the cruel matron's persecution. At the asylum she meets a young doctor whom she learns to love and the two manage to bring the truth to light. Polly is released and they are married.
