Jim Warren rises through the ranks in a steel mill to become the superintendant. His sympathies remain with the workers, however, and with their encouragement, he runs for assemblyman to unseat the corrupt incumbent, Francis Everard Lewis. When Jim helps Edna Tillinghast, a politician's daughter whom he met once in the mill, to fix her stalled car, he discovers to his dismay that she is Lewis' fiancée. After Lewis' secretary Franques gives Jim evidence to incriminate Lewis for graft, and Lewis withdraws from the race, Edna believes that Jim forced him out unfairly. Jim next runs for governor against Edna's father. Edna soon realizes Jim's integrity and breaks her engagement with Lewis against her father's wishes. After Jim receives bribes from various sources, Lewis tries to have Jim arrested, but Jim leads investigators to his bank, where he reveals the untouched, sealed bribes. Jim's fame is spread by the newspapers, and when he is nominated for governor, Edna consents to be his wife.