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In a Pennsylvania steel town, Big Jim Stanley works hard in the mill, while his new wife Anna runs a boardinghouse and carefully saves their earnings.  When Joe Zarcovia, one of Anna's boarders, invents a special dye, Anna asks Jim if they can use their savings to invest in Joe's discovery.  Upset by Anna's insistence that they improve their lives and leave the mill, Joe refuses Anna's request and storms out of the house.  Later, as Anna watches through the window, Joe stumbles home drunk with a strange woman.

The next morning, however, Joe begs Anna's forgiveness and agrees to invest in Joe's dye.  Boosted by the Stanleys' money, Joe's invention becomes a great success, and both he and Jim make a fortune as dye manufacturers.  Many years later, the now wealthy Jim, who has bought out several steel mills, meets and falls in love with New York gold digger Margot Van Dearing.  When Margot threatens to leave Jim unless he marries her, Jim asks Anna for a divorce.  Although hurt by Jim's infidelity, Anna refuses to grant his wish, convinced that his infatuation with Margot is only temporary.

Desperate, Jim sues Anna for divorce, and during the subsequent trial, several Stanley employees testify that Anna spent the night with another man.  In spite of Anna's claims that she still loves Jim and is innocent, Jim wins the decision.  When the judge announces that Anna will lose custody of her son Bobbie, however, she "confesses" to the adultery and demands to keep Bobbie.  Overwhelmed by Anna's bravery, Jim reveals that he paid the witnesses to lie and is sent to prison for perjury.

After he is released from jail a year later, Jim, whose steel and dye stocks have crashed, returns to the mill but, out of shame, hides from Anna.  Anna finds him, however, and convinces him to return to his loving home.