The original story was written by the film's associate producer, Louis Sarecky, and adapted for the screen by Forrest Halsey and Alfred Jackson.

Arthur Parker is a wealthy steel magnate who is relating the story to his snobbish wife and spoiled daughter of one of his plant supervisors who fearlessly rushed in and saved the lives of two of his fellow co-workers.

When his wife, Henrietta, asks if he rewarded the young man, Parker shows his astonishment by saying that the hero had refused the thousand dollars he had offered.

When the daughter, Dot, remarks that she would like to meet a man like that, the father tells her not to worry, she will, for he is coming to dinner that very evening.

The father takes that bet, and lo and behold she wins Dick's heart and gets him to accept her proposal of marriage by the deadline, despite his fears of their different social circumstances.

Parker also promotes Dick, but within six months, his new lifestyle threatens to emasculate Dick, who loses interest in his career and finds himself dominated by Dot's vapid, social whirl of bridge games, cocktail parties and passive acceptance of life as a "kept husband".