Helen, Reverend Henry Maitland's only child, opens a Mission School in the Chinese quarter of a large city to uplift the poor Chinese workers and bring them to a realization of what true Christian manhood means. The school becomes popular among the Chinese and they enjoy the talks of this beautiful young white woman who leaves her comfortable home to teach them. Among the pupils is rich Hing Lee, whose one ambition is to marry Helen. But Helen is already engaged to marry Arthur Hadley, who dislikes the Chinese, and he becomes furious at Helen's too-friendly attitude toward Hing Lee at a party given by Helen and later at one given by Hing Lee in his luxurious apartment. Arthur and Helen quarrel, Helen's work fails, and her pupils go directly from the Mission School to the Chinese gambling den. Helen witnesses the exposure of Hing Lee in the very act of enticing poor white tenants from their homes and sees her error in devoting her life to the uplift of the Chinese, who do not need her, and in two strong scenes she shows that she intends to help her own people, and in doing so she wins back her lover.