 During the Great Depression, Godfrey "Smith" Parke is living with other men down on their luck at a New York City dump in a Hooverville on the East River near the 59th Street Bridge.One night, a spoiled socialite named Cornelia Bullock offers him $5 (worth almost $100 in current money) to be her "forgotten man" for a scavenger hunt.Annoyed, he advances on her, causing her to retreat and fall on a pile of ashes.