After growing up in the West with her father, Drina Hilliard travels to New York to surprise her mother Marie, whose profitable Fifth Avenue millinery store has provided the means for Drina to go to college. Arriving while Marie is vacationing in Atlantic City, Drina soon discovers that Marie greatly overcharges her customers and then splits the profits with the women whose rich husbands or lovers pay. When Marie returns, she tries to get Drina to marry Colonel Lambert, an old rounder who pays the bills for a dozen women's hats, but Drina, attracted to Blair Carson, who drove bandits from their New York bound train, refuses the colonel. After Drina sees Blair with Zelie, a show girl whom the colonel has cast off, and realizes that Marie, now ill, is on the verge of bankruptcy, Drina nearly accepts the colonel's proposal, when Blair appears and confesses his love. Marie vows to run her store legitimately, and the colonel and Zelie console one another over their losses.