Young Artie Hamilton gets expelled from college, and his angered father--a wealthy railroad baron--throws him out of the house. Artie tells his father that within a year he'll have made enough money that he could buy his father's railroad. Soon afterwards Artie falls for a young girl he sees at a girls' school, Annabelle Willowboy. When he discovers that Annabelle is being courted by wealthy Uriah Updike, and that Updike's father owns property on which Artie's own father intends to build a branch of his railroad, Artie sees a chance to make his boast to his father come true--but it will take some scheming and trickery to do so, something Artie is fully prepared to do.