Plot

The story opens in the Klondike. Two young men from the East are in love with Edna Wallace. She accepts Brandon. A few years go by and we see McCormack, the friend and rejected suitor, attempting to rescue Brandon from drink and ruin. They quarrel and McCormack is wounded in a pistol fight. Brandon escapes to New York with his child. His wife follows. The scene then shifts to the Metropolis. McCormack is now a newspaper editor. One morning he confronts Brandon robbing his apartment. The latter dies of heart failure from shock. He leaves behind a letter which enables McCormack to locate the missing son. In the role of a "Cub" reporter he covers a big fire and rescues his mother from the burning building. The reunion in the hospital later, with McCormack present, is as touching as it is beautiful.—General Film Company advertisement

The first part of this photoplay opens in Klondike country, two years after the great gold rush of 1897. In one of the many little mining camps, which have sprung up, we find Frank McCormack, an ex-newspaper man, and his friend, Carl Brandon, a prospector. Knowing that Brandon has caught the gambling fever and fearing for the future of his friend, McCormack suggests that they invest their money in a small restaurant and lunch room, which they subsequently purchase from Edna Wallace. Ascertaining that the girl wants to return East, and knowing that McCormack loves the girl as much as he does, Brandon proposes and is accepted. Five years later we see that the demon, Drink, has a firm grip on Brandon and he neglects his wife and business. McCormack endeavors to rescue him. Some time later Brandon has a serious quarrel with his wife and accuses her of trying to elope with McCormack. That night he steals his four-year-old son, William, but is overtaken in the wilderness the next day by McCormack, who had promised the hysterical wife that he would go and try to bring back the boy. The two men meet, and, in the struggle that follows, Brandon shoots McCormack. Believing that he has killed his friend, Brandon, with his son, makes all haste to Dawson. The wounded man is found by two prospectors, is cared for and two weeks later returns to the mining village only to learn that Mrs. Brandon has left for the United States in hopes of finding her husband and son. Fifteen years later, McCormack, returning from his office in a large New York daily, of which he is the night city editor, has no sooner seated himself in the parlor of his home, when he hears a noise in the library. He investigates, armed with a revolver, and discovers Brandon, unkempt and ragged, who drops dead almost immediately, thinking that he had seen an apparition of McCormack, Through a letter in the dead mans pockets, McCormack learns that William Brandon is well cared for at a military academy. A month later William is apprised of his fathers tragic death and given a place on the editorial staff as a reporter. He, however, fails to make good and is advised by McCormack to try some other means of livelihood. Just then the telephone bell rings and a reporter asks for assistance in order to get a good factory fire story where hundreds of women are imperiled. William is assigned and at the scene of the conflagration, he forgets his duty as a reporter and hurries to rescue a woman who has fainted on a fire-escape. Seeing that escape down the staircase and the elevator is impossible, they again resort to the fire-escape, which is now being licked by great tongues of flame. They are finally rescued by the firemen and rushed to a hospital. Several hours later McCormack comes to the hospital to see the young man and the woman he had rescued. When he sees the woman lying on the opposite cot, he draws back in bewilderment. It is Edna Brandon. The boy had rescued his mother and he did not know it. The story comes to an end with McCormack apprising the two of their relationship. -- Moving Picture World synopsis