Gordon De Main plays a poor doctor, John Wright, who cannot afford to support his wife (Octavia Handworth) in the luxurious style she desires. After winning fame but minimal financial returns on a discovery he has made, Wright agrees to lend his endorsements to the marketers of a phony cure for tuberculosis. After Wright realizes that too many innocent people are dying at the sanitorium that has been founded in his name, he threatens the expose the owner. They hold him prisoner, his daughter falls victim to the disease, and he is sentanced to 30 years, where he catches TB as well. Pardoned before the duration of his sentance, he goes to an institution in the Adirondacks for treatment.