Summary
In an era where the divide between the gilded elite and the destitute masses was widening, Joe Smith Jr., the coddled scion of a manufacturing magnate, finds himself the subject of a Darwinian social experiment. Challenged by his patriarch to eschew his inheritance and forge a self-made destiny, Joe’s descent into the urban abyss is swift and unforgiving. Twelve months of penury transform the once-dapper youth into a spectral figure of the New York City underbelly, a vagrant haunting the park benches alongside other forgotten souls. It is here that Ned Stevens, a businessman of peculiar whims, discovers him. Stevens, embroiled in a philosophical dispute with the unscrupulous stockbroker Frank Overton, posits that environment, not just pedigree, dictates a man's worth. He offers Joe a week of luxury as a living proof of his hypothesis. However, the experiment takes a perilous turn as Joe falls for Stevens' sister, Lucy, and discovers that Overton is not merely a skeptic of social mobility, but a predatory financier orchestrating a ruinous swindle against the very woman Joe has come to adore.
Synopsis
Joe Smith Jr., the son of a millionaire, is challenged by his father to earn his own living instead of depending on his father's money. One year later Joe is broke, dirty, homeless and hanging out with other derelicts on a New York City park bench. A chance meeting with businessman Ned Stervens results in Joe being invited to stay in Stevens' house for a week, to make Stevens' point to his acquaintance Frank Overton---a shady stockbroker--that given a chance, even a tramp like Joe can better himself. Joe finds himself in love with Stevens' sister Lucy and unwittingly becomes party to a scheme by Overton to swindle Lucy out of her money.
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