After Ruth Minchin is acquitted of murdering her husband for lack of evidence, Richard Steel, a philanthropist, befriends her and sends her to his aunt's quiet country home. Reporter Edward Langholm follows, determined to get a scoop. At a lawn party, after a jealous woman reveals Ruth's identity, Richard confesses his love for her, but she grows suspicious when she finds a photograph of her husband in the house, and Langholm says that he saw Richard pay a tramp to keep quiet. Langholm overhears Ruth interrogate the tramp, who says that when Minchin tried to blackmail Richard by threatening to reveal that Richard once murdered a man in Australia, Richard killed Minchin. After Langholm has Richard arrested, Ruth remembers that Minchin once beat her when she helped Paolo Severino, a poor pianist. Detectives question Severino and he confesses that while delirious, he killed Minchin. Richard is freed, and after he explains that he killed the man in Australia in self-defense, he and Ruth plan to marry.