Shirley Blake (Shirley Temple) is a sweet little girl whose life is filled with tragedy. After her father went down in a plane crash, her mother Mary (Lois Wilson) was forced to take work as a maid for the snooty Smythe family. But then Mary is killed in a car crash, leaving little Shirley's future in doubt. Most of the Smythes want to send Shirley to an orphanage, but Uncle Ned (Charles Sellon) cares for the girl and insists that the family takes her in. They do so under protest, but then things get a lot more complicated when Shirley's loving godfather James "Loop" Merritt (James Dunn) steps forward and demands custody of the girl.