Eighteen-year-old Caroline (Kerry) Meeber travels from her small hometown of Columbia City to visit her older sister and her husband in Chicago. Both her relatives and the city greet her unkindly. Hardly found after a long search, Kerry lost a hard and low-paid job at a factory due to illness. Finding a new place was difficult. The girl sat without money for a long time, but she was helped by a young traveling salesman, Charles Drouet, whom she met on the train. He persuaded the girl to move away from her relatives and made her his mistress.