Colonel Riker was a hero in the trenches in 1918. He now heads Washington Military Academy. His pal Bill Duncan, dying, requests Riker to school his son Shirley ("Slip"), a juvenile delinquent. Slip starts fights, disputes all regulations, but Riker believes in him. When the truth comes out, that Slip got into the academy as a means of evading reform school, Slip leaves, but Jack Rollins tries to stop him. The squad roughhouses Slip, but in the mêlée, Jack is pushed out a window. Hurt badly, he nevertheless begs that Slip be kept. Slip has a change of heart, but now must contend with the boys who hate him.
