Colonel Latham, commanding an Army post in the West, has incurred the hatred of worthless soldier Mike Hogan. Indians attack the post just when the Colonel's wife is giving birth; with a soldier's wife in the same condition, Mrs. Latham is conveyed to the safest building, and both become mothers while the battle rages. The Colonel becomes the father of a daughter; the soldier becomes the father of a son. Hogan is handcuffed in an adjoining room. One of the Indians gets into the building and kills the surgeon, then the soldier's wife, but before he can kill the infant, Mrs. Latham manages to reach a carbine and shoots him; the shock and excitement is too much for her and she dies. Hogan gets into the room and opportunity suggests a fiendish revenge on the Colonel: He transposes the infants, placing the Colonel's daughter in the soldier's wife's arms and the soldier's son beside Mrs. Latham. He then takes the carbine in his manacled hands, and when the Colonel and others enter, poses as the slayer of the Indian and savior of the babies. The grief-stricken Colonel releases Hogan, who gains more credit by offering to look after the dead soldier's baby. This child (the Colonel's daughter) is turned over to Hogan and his wife. Twenty years elapse; the Colonel, retired, has established a manufacturing business in the east and amassed a fortune. His factory is an unsanitary firetrap; his employees are overworked, underpaid young girls. The one tender thing in the Colonel's life is his love for Rodney, whom he expects to embrace the military career. Hogan's wife is dead, and he has become a drunken loafer, living upon the slender wages earned by Rose, whom he has forced to secure employment in Latham's factory. Rodney comes home for a vacation, meets Rose and falls in love with her. Hogan hopes that this results in her ruin so he can tell the Colonel the truth and enjoy a fiendish vengeance. Rodney, for the first time becomes interested in the factory and its employees and is horrified at the conditions. He protests to the Colonel and is told not to concern himself. Latham, informed that Rodney is infatuated with one of the factory girls, orders him to drop the affair. To his astonishment Rodney declares his intention of marrying her and a quarrel ensues. Rodney declares that he will not return to West Point, but will devote himself to exposing conditions in the Colonel's and other factories. Soon after, Rodney and Rose disappear together, and Hogan thinks his plans have succeeded. He tells Latham that Rose was his child and taunts him that she is now ruined by the boy he loved as his son. Latham is brokenhearted to think that he is responsible for the fate of his wife's child. Later, the Latham factory burns. Hogan saw Latham enter the factory building, and is frantic of the idea of his being killed; he wishes him to live and suffer his grief and shame. He determines to rescue him and tries, but at the expense of his own life. The old Colonel is rescued by Rodney. Rodney and Rose have returned with the hope of affecting a reconciliation between Rodney and Latham, and when the latter learns that the young people are married, his thankfulness is great and he welcomes them home. It seems needless to disclose to them their true relationship to himself, so he keeps the secret.