Pep O'Mally and her little sister Bess are left in the care of their aunt, a trapeze artist at the exposition. Her aunt's manager, Marcus Renshaw, awed by Bess's beauty, offers to make her "the butterfly girl." Becoming frightened of Renshaw's advances, Pep runs away and finds a job with the Hawaiian dancers. There she falls in love with Robert Whipple, Jr., whom she later discovers is the son of a wealthy family. Believing that Robert's family will never accept her, and broken-hearted at the thought of a separation, Pep throws herself into the crater of the facsimile of Kilavea, imitating a legend of a Hawaiian girl who ended her life in the real volcano. She is saved by Robert, who promises Pep that his family will love her as much as he does.
—Pamela Short