Kind and good natured, policeman John Donovan is a great favorite. He has one son, Ted, a boy of about seventeen, of whom he is very fond. Ted is a wild sort of fellow. In a quarrel over some cards one night, he imagines he has killed one of the players. He skips town, leaving a note, saying he will not come back until he has made good. Lawton, a gambler, deserts Marion Gray, a young country girl. They have one child, a little baby. Marion secures permission to come home. She goes, first leaving her child on a doorstep, afraid to let her father see it. The baby is found by Officer Donovan, who takes it to the Sisters of Mercy, where it is kindly cared for. Donovan becomes attached to it and goes often to see it. The years go by and the child grows into a beautiful young girl. Donovan takes Daisy from the Sisterhood and gives her a home with him. As Donovan is getting old, Rigland, a political boss, who wishes to get some of his friends onto the force, has Donovan put on the pension list and retired. Daisy, his ward, goes to the Mayor and has her guardian appointed doorkeeper at one of the stations. Resembling John Dove, a noted counterfeiter, Donovan is appointed a special detective to capture the criminal's accomplices. By posing as Dove, Donovan is admitted into the stronghold of the crooks. His son, Ted, now a fine young fellow, comes home. Thinking that he may learn of his father's whereabouts through the underworld, he goes to the criminal's hang-out to see one of the leaders, whom he knows. He discovers the presence of his father, and wittingly manages to help him against the crooks, who are suspicious of his identity. A message is gotten to the police and a large force of officers arrives. The crooks are taken after a desperate fight in which Ted receives a slight wound. At his father's home, Ted is very happy as he lies back in bed, and looks up into the face of Daisy, who is fondly reading to him by his bedside.