 Ralston Temple is a successful novelist who receives a letter from struggling writer Alan Chatterton asking him for comments on the first three chapters of his book. Temple invites him to his apartment and Chatterton asks him for a loan of $40 per week for six months to allow him to finish his novel. Over time, the loans grow larger and Temple has yet to see anything of the novel. At a restaurant one evening, Temple sees Chatterton entertaining a group of friends and learns that he is a regular patron. Thinking he has been swindled, Temple throws him out. Only later does he realize that he may have been hasty.