Lionel Barrymore stars in this drama about a man who spends his life building a successful business, only to discover that his children are uninterested in carrying it on. Barrymore plays Daniel Pardway, a Chicago businessman who emerges from the wreckage of the 1871 fire to build a department store empire. Recognizing that Pardway's children will only squander their money and ruin the business, Pardway's partner quietly buys their shares, emerging with full charge of the empire. Only when Pardway is on the verge of death do his children rally around him and promise to make something of themselves.
