"Honest" John Kennedy is presented with a medal, for efficiency and bravery, by the board of police commissioners. He becomes engaged to Polly McGuire, and, by so doing incurs the revengeful enmity of "Slippery" Jim Quinn, the political boss of the ward in which Polly lives. Quinn, who has eyes for Polly, much to that young woman's displeasure, threatens to undo Kennedy before another week has passed. He plans a frame up on Kennedy, and with the aid of a marked fifty dollar bill, and the services of a well-known crook manages to place Kennedy in such an embarrassing position that the policeman, although innocent, is discharged from the force for accepting a bribe. Now Polly turns against him, believing him to be dishonest. Through a strange chain of circumstances, Kennedy rescues the wife and child of the crook who implicated him and causes his discharge. Moved by the occasion the crook gives Kennedy the evidence necessary to convict Quinn, the man higher up, and reinstate himself in his old position on the force, after which Polly again returns her love and hand.